Reflections
by MrsSparrowDarcy
Summary: Leena is kidnapped and Bit realizes that he wants her back, how will it work out?
1. Sunrise

Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids, no really… I don't. Fine! Believe what you want to, at least I tried!

Hey guys, this is a revamped version of the original chapter one. The content's the same but the writing itself is (hopefully) a step up from the previous one.

Chapter1

Leena pried open her eyes.

Looking out of the tinted window, she quickly came to the conclusion that it was still much to early to be awake; yet try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to return to the pleasant dream she had been having. The dream, if she remembered correctly, had had something to do with cookies and a severely bruised Bit Cloud.

She grimaced slightly at the thought of her blond compatriot; he had been (if possible) even more intolerable towards her than ever before. At first she had tried to ignore it and pass it off as apprehension towards an upcoming match with Vega, but she had to admit that even Jamie wasn't too nervous. So why would Bit be? she wondered.

Leena shook her head to clear it of all thoughts concerning one Bit Cloud –he wasted enough of her time when he was around, and there was no need to needlessly burden herself with thoughts of him when he wasn't there. If he had for some reason decided to be dumber than usual, it was his problem, and it was pointless to get herself worked up over it so early in the morning.

…………………………………….

Leena inhaled the cold morning air deeply, and reveled in the stinging sensation that it sent down her throat, into her lungs. She opened her eyes and gazed towards the eastern sky from the top of the base. The spot right above the kitchen vent had become one of her favorite haunts because no one thought of looking for her there and the smells of a kitchen had always delighted her.

Leena smiled slightly as the crimson clouds reflected in her eyes and thought back to a moment a few weeks earlier. She had been able to bribe Bit with a batch of cookies to keep Harry busy while she slipped out in her jeep, red hair flying behind her erratically. The sun began to peer above the horizon and Leena closed her eyes once more and tried to ponder her life.

She hadn't told anyone yet, but she had met someone a few days ago –the very person who she had gone to meet when Bit had distracted Harry. That person was no other than Leon. He had just been passing through town, but had decided not to stay at the hover cargo because he had come with a few of his friends and they had seemed to want secrecy for some reason or another.

The only reason she had come to know of his being there was because she'd spotted him dining composedly in a restaurant. She'd been too surprised to believe it or say anything at first, but when realization hit her she'd shrieked like a banshee. Leon had been equally as happy to see her but had sworn her to secrecy. It wasn't that he didn't trust his own father, but he had promised his friends of his not saying a word –and if Leon was anything, he was loyal, loyal to the end.

His two acquaintances were zoid warriors, but they only fought the Backdraft. It was their sworn duty, and that of their parents before them, to rid the world of the Backdraft. Tristan and Trina were twins and not too much older than herself. Tristan was rather reserved and he was usually lost to the world whenever he was wading through deep thoughts for hours on end. Trina was more of a free spirit and if Leena hadn't known better she would have sworn that Trina could no more be a zoid warrior than Brad could be a ballerina.

The sun began to stab her eyes, regardless of the fact that she had them completely shut. Leena sighed, regretting the end of her meditation, and slipped back down the access ladder into base. Today she would see them all again, but until then time would move too slowly for her to stand.

If she'd been lucky enough in her friends and relations to have another girl in the base it would have been quite a relief. Her father and the boys were excellent company when she desired it, but a girl had to be a girl sometimes, no matter how much of a tomboy she was. Unfortunately, her present situation didn't give her much leeway, and even if she had a girl to talk to, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell her friend anything. Leena sighed heavily as she jumped down from the ladder, soon she would see him again –Tristan.


	2. Eager Temptations

I don't own Zoids, no matter how rich and talented I might be…

Chapter2

Bit Cloud lifted his head just enough to glare resentfully in the general direction of the loud noise which had been the cause for his awakening. Bit was by no means an early riser, but he didn't sleep in until noon either and the time he did sleep was sacred… Bit decided to forgive and forget because the noise, though loud and sudden, had been short and it would not take long until he fell back into his delightful dream about … snore

Leena grabbed her ankle in pain and limped towards her bed awkwardly. Her graceful leap through the trap door in the ceiling in her room had been anything but graceful, and had been more of a crash landing than a 'leap'. She decided that while she was awake she might as well do something useful rather than stare at the clock and will it to be 3 o'clock, the time that had been assigned to her by Leon to meet him and the twins for lunch. Leena had tried to be patient in vain and the torture of each passing minute was bad enough to submit to waking up Bit to entreat him to entertain her; this couldn't last much longer. Leena let her head fall back on to her pillow in exasperation. Two minutes passed and Leena was an inch away from annihilating anything and everything that reminded her even remotely of a timekeeping device. It was to her great surprise and relief that she finally heard a noise, and something told her it was coming from the kitchen.

"Good Morning Leena!" said Dr. Torros cheerfully turning towards his disgruntled daughter, "You look kinda' sick, was it that chicken that Brad made? I knew it tasted funny…" Leena assured him that it had nothing to do with the chicken and instead recalled with a smile that Brad had _actually offered_ to cook dinner! The only explanation that she could offer was that he'd overheard her and Naomi saying that they liked men who knew their way around a kitchen. Leena allowed herself a smirk at Brad's expense, when would he ever learn? It was almost written all over their faces, their feelings for each other, yet they continued to feign ignorance! It wasn't going to do them much good, but Leena didn't want to intervene if she didn't have to, matters of the heart were already convoluted enough without having a third person involved in them. Her mind wandered fitfully back towards Tristan. He wasn't the over-muscular hero type, nor was he in any way too scrawny, but putting aside his physical appeal, there was a shroud of mystery around him which irked Leena's insatiable sense of curiosity.

As she was contemplating how a plain pair of brown eyes could possibly be so expressive, she met with a completely different hue. Blue eyes invaded her sights and an unwarranted voice filled her hears…Bit. Bit saw that he had finally gotten her attention, but for that attention he would pay dearly. Leena sat up and glared daggers at the blond boy who gingerly asked her if she was sitting on the remote. Leena was in the mood for an argument, so she decided not to budge. "I refuse to get up off of my comfy spot just because you want to watch the idiot box! Which is no coincidence either!" Bit glared back at the saucy, pervicacious redhead.

"Well if you're not going to get up, I'm just going to have to _make_ you!" he retaliated angrily.

"How's that Bit Cloud?" taunted Leena putting up her fists, ready for attack.

Bit smirked, he knew better by now to tangle with Leena, but he had something up his sleeve she would _never_ see coming. Bit bent down swiftly and picked up the shocked girl who had already been thrown onto another armchair before she realized what had happened. Bit found the remote all right… but the battle wasn't over yet.

After a string of generally incoherent screeching and a few minutes of chasing Bit managed to loose the mad woman and settled himself down for a couple of hours of good TV. Leena on the other hand was far from settled, and was in fact pacing her room in order to keep herself from truly loosing it. 'How dare he!' she thought furiously. But that wasn't what was truly bothering her though, and she knew it. It seemed as though her clock had a mind of its own, and in order to taunt her it had decided to slow down as much as possible. Chasing Bit around had done her some good and released some pent-up frustration, but it wasn't enough. Maybe if she picked another fight with him he would say or do something stupid, as usual, and this time she would get to punch his face in! Leena seemed satisfied with her plan and headed towards the TV.

Bit was sprawled out on the couch watching some televised zoid battle; it looked interesting so she decided that she could pick a fight once it was over. As it turned out the battle was actually part of a local tournament that was happening somewhere far off (by the looks of the palm trees) so Leena stayed a little longer. Before she knew it her and Bit were screaming directions to the oblivious pilots and rooting for their respective favorite teams. It was three thirty before Leena pried her eyes off of the screen long enough to take a peek at the clock. She instantly jumped up and squeaked in surprise. Bit looked every inch as flustered as she did, but when he asked her about the reason for her odd noise, the only reply he got was that it was all his stupid fault.

As Leena flew out the door, Bit shrugged and returned to the match, but turned it off when he realized that without Leena screaming at him or the screen, it wasn't that interesting anymore. He could still eat some of her cookies though he realized with joy. Today was going to be a good day.


	3. Why Me?

I still don't own Zoids… yet…

PS- reviewing is a fairly good way of earning new chapters… else I just might loose interest… and besides, I really do want to know what your thoughts are (you matter! Yay you!)

Chapter3

Leena wore a huge grin as she drove hastily towards the Crash Hover Cargo, or Crash Cargo for short. Tristan and Trina were called The Crashers, she wasn't quite sure why they had chosen that name, but Tristan had promised to tell her later. Leena began to form a plan on how she could possibly pull Tristan aside and have him to herself for a while, but her thoughts were halted as the Crash Cargo loomed ahead of her among the hot dessert dunes. Leena's smile grew larger (if possible) with the thought of nabbing a seat next to him during lunch and listening to the sound of his sweet voice as he related stories of their past. The sand flew dangerously from her spinning wheels as she accelerated towards the Crash Cargo with anticipation. Today was going to be a good day.

Before Leena even reached the intercom the ramp began to lower slowly, and a lone figure strode from the shadows silently. "Leena, so glad you finally arrived, I was beginning to think you weren't going to make it." Leena blushed gratuitously and gave a small apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry for being late Tristan," knowing his adoration of punctuality, "but Bit was being stupid as usual and I just lost track of time…" she said, blaming her lack of timeliness on the blond warrior.

Tristan grinned and accepted her apology, saying there was no need to worry, as his sister and Leon had gone somewhere and had not yet returned. "So," he decided, "I guess it's just us for now". Had Leena been a girly-girl, she would probably have fainted of happiness, but she managed to hide her emotional state with a question.

"If you don't mind my asking; do you think there's anything going on between Trina and Leon?" For a moment a shadow passed over Tristan's face and he almost looked… angry… but the look was gone before she could decipher it.

"As a matter of fact," he said nonchalantly, "I think they might have something going on… but let's not bore ourselves with them, I can think of a million fun things to do while they're away." Leena tried vainly to not visualize those million fun things in her head, but impulse won her over and her blush remained strong and steady for the next two minutes.

Ten minutes had passed and Leon and Trina were nowhere to be seen. This didn't seem to bother Tristan in the least and Leena was too busy congratulating herself on her streak of good luck. Tristan was sitting next to her on the sleek black couch and while they talked and joked his hand would brush up against hers every once in a while, things were looking up for her, and if she was right about Leon and Trina, they were looking up for him too…

A robot entered the room quickly and cleared away their glasses, politely asking if they wanted anything else from the kitchens. Leena sighed slightly and wondered if she would live here when –if she and Tristan got married. Her imagination was running away with her, but it was difficult for it not to when Tristan kept hinting at a possible relationship… it was too much for one Zoid warrior to bear!

"Leena" he said suddenly, pulling her out of her reverie, "this is a little hard for me, but I have something personal to ask you, if you don't mind." Leena's heart was going at a hundred miles per hour but somehow she summoned enough strength and willpower to nod her head slowly. "I'm a bit nervous to tell you the truth," he started, not sounding nervous at all, "but I have to tell you the truth. I think you are the most beautiful girl I have ever had the fortune of meeting, you're everything I want Leena!" This exclamation left Leena dumbfounded, but the kiss afterwards left her breathless.

After a few minutes of declaring their passionate love for each other and making plans on where they would most like to honeymoon, Tristan stood up slowly taking Leena's hand and pulling her up with him. "I have something to show you," he said in a flat tone, and began to walk down one hallway leading to somewhere that Leena could only guess. Leena followed and though she tried, she couldn't keep from banging into the scores of robots that lined the hall.

"Jeeze!" she said jokingly, "you've got an army down here!" Tristan turned his head slightly and smirked, but said nothing until they arrived. Leena gasped, it was a forest! She pinched herself to make sure she was awake, which she was.

"I've always loved the forest," he said calmly strolling over to a mossy rock by the stream. "I was born near the forest and Trina and I grew up there. I decided to make one for myself because I got sick of looking at all this sand." Leena nodded in accord, maybe that explained why their windows were always shaded. "This forest isn't real, but it's close enough for me."

"How long have you had it?" she asked curiously

"It's relatively new."

"Oh," was all she could manage.

Tristan turned around and looked at her with his piercing eyes. "Now I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes until I tell you to open them." Leena closed them eagerly; what could it be? An engagement ring? No, too soon. When Leena finally opened her eyes she was alone. Alone in the forest… Was this some sort of joke? She looked around. It looked as though she were surrounded by rocks and trees from all sides. There was even a blue sky above her head and the hot sun sprinkled on the ground through the leaves. Where was Tristan? "Hello Leena," came his voice from somewhere behind her. When she turned though, all she could see was trees and more trees. "You won't be able to see me, but I can most certainly see you."

"This isn't funny Tristan!" she hollered at an innocent tree.

"Oh but it is Leena, it's hilarious… If you haven't yet figured it out, let me do the honors. You are trapped in my virtual forest, but if you walk a little further ahead and follow the path, it will lead you to a comfortable living space. My robots will be able to provide you with everything you need to live here for a few weeks and even a few months, should it come to that" Leena stared at the tree in horror, a few _months_?

"What is going on here?" she asked angrily, dreading the answer.

"I cannot believe that you were so childish as to fall for me in the first place, but lucky you did, else it would have been hard to convince you to come here alone in the first place."

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?" she screamed as she tried to pummel through the forest and back to the rest of the base.

"Let's just say that it was a matter of… leverage…" and with that he left her alone in the forest…if only. As the screaming girl ripped through the forest she saw a dark figure approaching apprehensively. She gasped as she realized that it could only be one person…

"WHYYYYYYYY MMMMEEEEEE?" she asked as she fell to the ground.


	4. Shattered

This chapter explains a lot. And some feelings might even start beginning to develop, but I'm trying to take that slowly because I'm a faithful advocate of taking it slowly. 'That which burns brightest burns briefest'!

Tell me your thoughts because I'm dying to know what you think of this!

PS. Unless you haven't already figured it out, I don't own Zoids

Chapter4

Leena groaned with her head in her hands, after her loud outburst Harry had broken into a sprint and begun to try and comfort her. This, of course, only increased her hysterics and Leena could barely even choke out a proper "Get away from me or die" before violent sobs racked her body once more. Harry stood frozen to the spot, aware that where Leena was concerned, he had reason to be afraid.

"My dear! Don't you recognize your future husband? The man destined to be king? It's me, Harry!" Leena assured him that she knew exactly who he was and if he did not back away slowly, every fake tree in the forest was going to end up on top of his mutilated body. Harry reluctantly left, and reminded her several times that if she needed him, all she would have to do was press the 'Harry' button in her bedchambers, which he had designed himself. Leena slowly got up and wandered down the path, she was hungry after all that screaming, she might as well get something to eat.

The forest was scenic, but the fact that she knew it was fake took away from its beauty. Her stomach growled, and she quickened her pace. When she finally arrived, after five minutes of tripping over every rock and twig and catching her hair on every possible branch, she was a mess. 'Might as well wash up too…' before her was a cave, but inside was the bachelorette pad of her dreams! Well, it would have been, were it not for the fact that practically every surface had a picture of Harry on it, even the pictures on the walls were pictures of a delighted Harry and a sullen Leena on one of his infamous dates. Leena's eyes began to tear slightly, but she shook her head angrily, no way was she going to cry like some petulant child, she was a zoid warrior for heavens sake! There was a way out of here, and she was going to find it! She got in the bathtub only after she scanned every nook and cranny for a camera, she wouldn't have put it past Harry to do something that low, after all, he'd already kidnapped her, who knew what else he was planning? Leena found herself unconsciously peering at the door every once in a while, almost expecting Bit to unknowingly walk in the door, but she quickly reminded herself that it would not happen here, and somehow that depressed her almost as much as everything else… She stared up at the beautiful tiled ceiling and thought about what her father and the others would be doing right now. Would any of them miss her? 'Of course they will' a voice chided in her head, 'they need you!' Leena realized suddenly that this was not so. Bit and Brad were the _real_ fighters, she barely even puller her weight. All that money spent on ammunition, all for nothing. They'd probably be _glad_ that she was gone, if anything. With that thought, she could no longer keep the tears, and they seeped down her trembling chin, mixing with the soapy water. What if they really didn't want her back? Would she be here forever? With _Harry_??? What if they let her go, and when she returned, they weren't happy to see her? Leena forced the thoughts out of her head, if they didn't want her it was their problem, not hers. Her problem was how to get out of here. Leena leaned her head back on the rim of the tub and enjoyed the silence for the first time. Maybe she'd give it a day…

Leon Toros glared at the whimpering girl sitting across from him in the Toros Base, but gradually calmed at the sight of her pitiful state. She'd been crying for the past fifteen minutes, and she had eventually stopped, but was still making small sounds of sadness. It was the first time that Trina had ever disobeyed her brother, and there was no use in making it harder on her. He sighed, walking over to her and putting his arm around her carefully, she stopped making noises and gingerly rested her head on his shoulder. Dr Toros walked into the room with a grave look on his face. Leon looked at his father expectantly.

"I can't trace it, they've got a big head start on us, they could be anywhere by now!" He looked down at the tearstained girl huddled against Leon, "If there's anything else you know…"

Leon motioned for Doc to sit down, and called to everyone who was listening at the door anyways. They sat down with sheepish looks on their faces, but concern for Leena dominated the room. "Trina told me that he kidnapped her so that he could exchange her for the Liger Zero." Bit's mouth dropped open, but Leon ignored him, "she said that he also made a deal with some other guy…"

At this point, Trina got the courage to open her mouth. "It was some rich guy. Tristan got funding for some of his projects and the guy got Leena." Leon looked furiously around the room as though searching for him.

"Is that Champ kid still running around? I want to know where he is!" Jamie jumped up and went to contact the Champ base.

Bit got up and started to pace the room. No way was he going to give up Liger. Leena wouldn't be _that_ bad off would she? Harry was no prince charming, but he wouldn't hurt her, right? Jamie hurtled into the room and informed everyone that Harry was not at the base and was not expected back for another couple of weeks.

"Don't underestimate my brother" said Trina shakily, "he won't just leave it at that, the base is well stocked enough to last at least a few months." She looked up at Leon with hopeful eyes, she loved him, but he couldn't forgive her until his sister was safe. She sighed, it was either him or his sister, and he was the one in danger, not her, at least not as long as Harry and his money were still there…


	5. Lonely Nights

Thanks to all my readers!

Dragonheart1145 – yes, I have other stuff but it isn't on this site, I should upload it but I'm too lazy! (Oops! Me being the clumsy idiot. I accidentally deleted your review! Not on purpose I swear!) Moonyasha - Glad you think it's interesting! 

Chapter5

Leena stretched and yawned impatiently; the entire day had gone by with no news from the outside world, even Harry had not shown up to terrorize her existence. She was quickly discovering new and interesting things about her little apartment and most of them were good. She had found the "Harry" button, but that had not taken much work since it was the only large red button on the living room wall. Leena had taken care to not go anywhere near it, in case she were to brush against it and Harry were to come running. There was also the fully stocked fridge to think of. And not to mention the fact that any cookies or doughnuts she laid claim upon would not be devoured by one stupid, blond, idiot of a zoid pilot. The apartment or whatever it was certainly had its merits, including a plasma screen TV, a king sized bed, furnishings that a duke would be proud of and of course, the biggest plus, peace. But there was rarely a time in Leena's life where she had found something to be good enough for her, the cookies were always too dry or under baked, the guys were always egoistical or too stupid to be egoistical, the water was always too cold or too warm etc. etc. so it was no small wonder that she found fault in her current quarters as well. This fault was not of her fabrication though…

"AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGG!" Leena screamed at the top of her lungs at an unoffending picture frame, promptly picking it up, smashing it to the ground and attempting to puree it with the soles of her shoes. She had been wandering around this darn flat for hours now and she had almost even considered using the Harry button one time, but just looking at his annoying face staring down at her from a dozen different pictures hanging from the walls was driving her insane already, she didn't know if she could stand looking at the real thing. Not a sound. Not a single noise retaliated at her deafening wail. It had only been two days and she was already loosing her marbles. Leena threw herself on a nearby divan and wondered if she should just get it over with and smother herself with a pillow.

Suddenly a sound came from the open window, she lifted her head just in time to see a solitary figure move past.

………………………………..

It had been raining all night and there were no signs of letting up, Bit sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, he was exhausted beyond belief, everyone was, but sleep would not come. Trina had been given Leena's room to bunk in; no one had been less happy with the situation than Leon, but he said nothing. Bit knew why he was angry, but try as he might he couldn't stay mad at the girl; she was so fragile and helpless, that it seemed wrong to blame her. Leon was trying his best, but when it came to his family, he was extremely protective. Bit knew that he wasn't the only one who would stay up watching the rain peel off of the windows, but there was no comfort in the thought. He wondered faintly how Leena was holding up, and if it came down to it, if he would be able to give up Liger. 'Not without a fight' he thought angrily.

………………………………..

Leon knew that it was childish to point fingers and that if it hadn't been for her he probably would have been in the same trap as Leena, with even slimmer chances of rescue, but try as he might, the thoughts returned. Trina's dark green eyes swam warily in his thoughts but he pushed them away. He had considered it, but that had been before. Trina had taken him out to lunch as a surprise, but little had he known, she had other thoughts in mind. She had refused to tell him anything until they were back at the Toros Base, and even then she had not said a word. The first thing she had done was to ask for Leena, but it had been too late.

He remembered exploding when Trina told him the truth, and yelling at her like a maniac, but she had not said a word in her defense, she had merely hung her head and borne his rage. He recalled the shocked faces of the Blitz team when they finally processed the information and how Doc had struggled not to cry in front of the group, Jamie had looked stricken, Brad had looked grave, and Bit… Bit had simply been blown away.

Despite everything, Leon knew why she had done it. Criminal or not, Tristan was her brother, her own flesh and blood; but then again, the same went for Leena.

………………………………..

Leena shivered and stood up slowly, hoping that along with state-of-the-art everything else, there had been a security system as well… She crossed the room and shut the window quickly, drawing the blinds at the same time. There shouldn't be _real_ creatures in a _virtual_ forest, but then again, who knew? Better safe than limbless… She hurried around to check the locks and then retreated to her room. The dark, soft comforter eased her mind and shielded her from her worries, whatever it was, it could wait until tomorrow; she had a king-sized waterbed to take advantage of…

………………………………..

PS- sorry about the short chapters, I'll try to make them longer, but I'm attempting to go at an even pace here and these guys don't seem to have that much to say yet… they're still too shocked by all these events.


	6. An Offer You Can't Refuse

Here goes another one! And I still don't own zoids… I'm working on it though…

Chapter6

Morning came quickly for the redheaded zoid pilot, and though she tried her best to sleep the rest of the day away, she could not get back to sleep. Dark dreams had chased her all night long and she felt as though she had barely slept a wink; but try as she might, her eyes refused to shut, and so she awoke.

The first thing she noticed was that her toothbrush had her name monogrammed onto it in silver leaf, the only problem was that her last name seemed to have mysteriously changed to 'Champ'… Leena promptly attempted to scratch off the offending five letters and quite naturally succeeded. She wasn't sure what Harry was playing at, but she sure as heck wasn't going to fall for it. At least not for a second time… He may have her captive, but she was nobody's prisoner. And that was that.

Leena found that her wardrobe was filled to the brim with beautiful outfits and gowns that were completely useless in the middle of a forest, so she ignored them and used her battle gear instead. Luckily the place came with every appliance she could think of, and plenty that she couldn't even recognize… Harry had certainly spared no expense in this place, but it amazed her to think that after all of this time he would still take the time to show off his money when she had made it perfectly clear that she didn't care a bit for it!

Hmm… and speaking of Bit; she would have bet her cookie jar that at that very moment he was at some fancy restaurant rejoicing over her current situation. At this thought Leena went into a rage and drew a sloppy figure of Bit Cloud and watched delightfully as it burned to a crisp in the large fireplace, and while she was at it she drew some for Harry and Tristan as well. This activity only lasted so long, and there were many hours left in the day, so Leena decided that rather than moping around in the fancy hut, she might as well attempt to find a way out of the horrible mess she had managed to land herself in, and perhaps even acquire some information as to why she was there in the first place.

Leena pried open as many drawers and shelves as she could, trying and failing, in finding a weapon with which to arm herself in case of attack, or in case of Harry… There were plenty of blunt and heavy objects she could have chosen from, but Leena was looking strictly for something with bullets. There had undoubtedly been some sort of _thing_ outside of her window the night before, and she wasn't going to take any chances. Unfortunately for her, Harry's list of necessities and comforts did not coincide with hers; therefore, no Magnum and no Dillinger… She eventually decided on an oddly-shapen metal vase with her name and Harry's engraved into it and set out on her journey; but not before packing a couple sandwiches, a water bottle, a bag of chocolate-chip cookies and a reasonably sharp knife...

…………………………………

A knock resounded on the thick metal door, but Bit ignored it. He had barely slept at all, and the last thing he needed was someone to come in and attempt a heartfelt talk. Not only was Liger Zero at stake, but Leena had been kidnapped by some loony pilot, who had been on the run from the ZBC for the past five years. Somehow Leon was involved in all of this, but he hadn't said anything about it, and no one had the heart to ask. Doc had taken it very badly, and had begun to spend his time staring at old pictures of Leena when he thought no one was around.

Bit rolled over onto his stomach and glared at the door as the knocks became louder and more urgent. He hadn't eaten a bite since the small dinner he had somehow forced down his gullet the night before, and he was still in no mood for it. He finally sighed in defeat and crawled out of his crumpled comforter, making slowly for the hated noise.

Bit stopped suddenly, with his hand on the knob, and realized that the last time someone had had to force him to eat was the time he had gotten a horrible flu, and had begun to feel queasy at the very _sight_ of food. Leena had rubbed it in his face for days that eating her cookies had become nearly impossible, since he tended to throw them up as soon as he swallowed them. Jamie, on the other hand, had been kind enough to make food that was more or less digestible. Leena had always been the one to bring it to his room, but he had thought that it had been more out of guilt than actual generosity. But even her selfishness was acceptable now: now that she was gone. Gone before he even knew it. How could he ever know if they would stay a team forever? How would he ever find out if Leena truly had it in her to be a great pilot? Now that she was gone.

The knocking started up once again, and Bit shook his head to clear away his thoughts. He turned the knob and peered out. There, in a perfect vision of pity, stood Trina, looking as sad and submissive as ever. She lifted her head quickly and looked strait into his eyes, almost as though she were asking him a silent question. He understood her immediately, and opened his door wider and stepped aside, allowing her to enter. Her eyes immediately fixed upon his window and refused to look anywhere else. He closed the door slowly and turned towards her with a questioning look. She did not look back at him, but spoke instead to his foggy reflection in the gray glass.

"I know you blame me, and I'm sorry for all I've caused, but I did what I felt was right –and I don't regret my decisions." She said quickly. Bit looked at her in surprise; for all of her earlier abashedness, she sounded much more confident than she looked.

"If you don't regret anything, then what are you doing in my room?" he asked sharply. She blushed slightly, but her gaze at his reflection did not waver.

"I am here to make you an offer. You may not like it, it is extremely risky and difficult, but I think it is our only chance at saving Leena."

"Why didn't you go to Leon instead?" She raised her head slightly and set her mouth in a line.

"Because I know that he can't trust me. But I think that I can count on you to follow directions –you've got Liger at stake as well as Leena. I've heard about you, Bit Cloud, and I hope for Leena's sake that I can trust you; otherwise, she is lost."


	7. The Truth of the Matter

Thanks for the reviews guys!_ Much_ appreciated, trust me! Feedback is always welcome! 

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Chapter Seven

Leena Toros collapsed onto a fallen log at the side of a small stream and held her head in her hands. It seemed as though she'd been walking for days, and yet it had only been a few hours. Her food supply was running thin and her patience was even thinner. Leena was no weakling, but she'd never really been one for the great outdoors. If Tristan had to keep her hostage, the least he could have done was to have created a virtual mall instead! Leena took a large gulp from her water bottle and stared at her reflection in the shallow stream. Leaves and twigs were jutting out oddly from beneath her red curls, and odd streaks of dirt lined her cheekbones from the many times that she had tripped over logs, rocks and her own two left feet. Her eyes wandered about her face and she lifted a hesitant hand up to trace it. What did people see when they looked at her? Was she just the team goof? Bit had often gotten angry and said that the only reason she was on the team was because she was Doc's daughter, but she'd never given it a second thought… until now.

Being alone in the artificial wilderness gave a person way more free time than they needed, she was positive that she was loosing her mind. She had been confident that in a couple of days the Blitz team would come barging in to save her and they would kick Tristan's sorry ass and things would go back to how they always had been, but she'd been forgetting a crucial detail; she hadn't told them… Like a fool, she'd agreed not to whisper a word, and she'd been so proud of herself for keeping the secret that she hadn't asked why she was keeping it. She painfully thought about where Leon was right now, and if he was suffering the same fate as she, or worse… could he be locked up in some musty cell somewhere? Could he be hurt? Maybe he was just on the other side of the virtual forest, wondering about her. She'd been such a fool; she'd believed their act to the very end! Trina had seemed like the perfect friend, and Tristan had seemed like the perfect boyfriend, it had all been a lie. Leena stared into her own eyes, wondering why they had begun to well up. There was no reason to cry now, but no one could see her, so what did it matter? She lifted her head slowly and stared at the bright blue sky. It was all a lie.

A twig snapped and some leaves crackled. Leena sucked in a breath suddenly and became very still. The noises came slowly closer, and she could do nothing but listen and will them to vanish. She gripped at the knife with her clammy hand and the rotting log with the other. The noises stopped, and Leena knew that whatever it was, it was right behind her. "Leena! My _darling_!-" Leena jumped up, turned around faster than Harry could blink, and pointed the knife dangerously towards him. "Leena!" he admonished, "put that down! You could hurt yourself!"

"If you know what's good for you Harry, you'll walk away right now!"

"Leena, I was just coming to see you, because you hadn't called and I couldn't find you! Do you know how _worried_ I've been?" Leena sighed in exasperation and sank to the ground. She raked one hand through her hair and looked at Harry angrily.

"Where is Leon? Is he alright? Where is he Harry?" Harry shuffled his feet nervously and looked at his expensive boots rather than at Leena.

"Err… Leon? I have no idea where he could be, why do you ask?" Leena glared at him.

"I know you know where he is Harry. Now tell me! It's important!"

"I wish I could Leena but-" Harry couldn't finish his sentence, because Leena had grabbed his collar, and was looking him straight in the eyes.

"I need to know. And you need to tell me." Harry gulped and loosened her grip.

"I'm sorry Leena, but Tristan-"

"Forget Tristan!" she shouted angrily, "You're the one that built this place Harry! You're the boss around here, not Tristan! Don't let him tell you what to do! You've already done enough damage by listening to him; now listen to me! Tell me where my brother is or I'll-"

"You'll what?" rang a metallic voice from behind her. When she turned around, she saw what had spoken. One of Tristan's large robots was standing a yard away from her with a large gun in his hand; a gun that was pointed at her head…

"No, no!" cried Harry frantically, "It's alright! We were just playing around! She didn't mean anything by it!" Leena felt like socking him in the face, but at the moment he was the only one standing between her and a gruesome death.

"Yeah…" she began uncertainly, "we always fight… but only to show how much we truly love each other…" It took most of her self-restraint to not gag when Harry put his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"Nothing to see here! We're fine!" Harry put on a genuine smile, while Leena put on a fake one. Once the robot had left, Leena tore herself from the offending Zoid pilot and pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You're in league with Tristan, so don't try to play dumb! It's _your_ fault I'm here!" Harry tried to calm her down, but it seemed to not be working. "I can't believe you would have the _gall_ to kidnap me!! That's low, even for _you_!" Harry looked a little hurt at her words, and said nothing, allowing her to vent. When she had finally finished, Harry was sitting warily on a large rock and Leena was standing a few feet away from him, angrily glaring at his scrunched-up form.

"I want a chance to explain Leena…" she said nothing, but continued to glare at him, so he continued. "You won't believe me unless I start at the beginning, so I will." He sighed and stood up. "I was at home, working on one of my new zoids when the Leena alarm went off." Leena gave him an odd look, but said nothing. "I have this machine that goes off whenever your name is mentioned in an eight mile radius…" Leena rolled her eyes but remained quiet, "So I went to check what it was about and I overheard Tristan talking about how he would have to take you too because you knew too much. I didn't know what he was talking about but I knew it couldn't have been good. I sent him a message saying that he had better not be planning anything bad. He told me that you had told him about me and that you wouldn't believe me even if I told you. I knew it was the truth, so I made a deal with him. I funded his project in return for the assurance that you would be safe. That's why I'm here." Leena looked at him in surprise, it hadn't been his plan after all…

"You still haven't answered my question…" she said, dangerously waving the knife in her hand. Harry gulped.

"I shouldn't tell you anything… it could be dangerous! The safest thing to do is wait for the ransom-" He stopped suddenly, looking guilty. Leena snapped her head towards him.

"Ransom! You never said anything about a ransom!" Harry's eyes were glued to his feet.

"Well…" Leena's mouth dropped open.

"I can't believe this! What is the ransom? WHERE IS MY BROTHER????!!!"

Harry felt himself being shoved against a tree, and when he looked up he realized that she was even more beautiful when she was in a murderous rage. Suddenly the robot appeared through the brush once more.

"Unhand Mr. Champ," rang its clipped voice through the clear air. Leena instantly dropped him and he fell to a heap at her feet. "I am now going to escort you back to your living quarters. Come with me." Leena wished she could have blasted the annoying little tin bucket with her new weapons, but she had no choice, because of the two of them, only one had a gun, and it wasn't her…

After fifteen minutes of marching through the dense underbrush, Leena finally entered her little apartment. The robot had left after she had slammed the door in its face, hoping that she had damaged something. The first thing she had done was to take a shower, and the second was to fall unconscious the minute she had hit the bed, her head filling with thoughts of revenge.


	8. Silence

Well… Exams have been tearing my head apart, but you don't really care about that now do you?

I'll say it again just in case, I don't own zoids. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review and motivate me as a writer. As for the rest of you, I hope you like it, and if you do, I highly suggest you tell me what it is you like, and if there are things I could possibly change in order to make this a more enjoyable experience for the both of us. Thanks!

…………………………………….

Chapter Eight

Rain had been pelting the base all morning, and Jamie had a cold. This meant both bad weather, bad food, and consequently, bad moods. Leena was still looming heavily on their minds, and with nothing to distract them from her loss, there was little to be done except for to feel sorry for themselves and snap at anyone who tried to talk to them. Leon was the angriest of them all. He was frustrated that no one else seemed to be taking the matter as seriously as it should have been taken, and that there was nothing that could be done. They had informed the ZBC, but they knew that they were powerless as well. Doc was hardly less worried, but he was not as angry as Leon, he just felt helpless. The Toros family had unraveled one by one; Leena had been his last chance, she'd been his little girl, and he hadn't been able to protect her! So many "if's" and "but's" floated about his mind, that he felt as though he would break down at any moment. He spent nearly all day in his room, and when Jamie came down with the cold, it was almost the straw that broke the camel's back.

They all sipped cold soup in the silence, which was only broken by Jamie's hacking choughs and sneezes every once in a while. Trina had not emerged from her room that morning, and neither had Bit. This had surprised even Leon, and he'd gone as far out of his brooding as to knock on Bit's door to ask him the problem.

The truth was that Bit simply hadn't felt like facing the world. He was no coward, but after what Trina had said to him the day before, he wasn't sure that he could look anyone in the eye, not even himself, especially not himself. He'd spent a restless night trying to sort out his thoughts and feelings, but nothing had come to him. He felt truly alone. Trina had 'forbidden' him to tell anyone, but he wouldn't have told anyone even if she hadn't asked him not to. It wasn't that he had any strange sense of loyalty towards the girl he barely knew, and who could possibly _still_ be secretly on Tristan's side, but what she had told him had been nothing anyone else could hear. Trina was a good person. He knew at least this much about her. True, she was easily manipulated and far too trusting, but she had a large heart, in fact, some might say that it was _too_ large…

Trina openly denounced Tristan's plot to kidnap Leon and his sister, but she had never denounced Tristan himself. She continued to insist that Tristan was misled by his greed, and he was in fact, a good person at heart. Bit was confident that if Tristan walked into that very room and said he was sorry for being such a prick, but he wouldn't give Leena back until the ransom was paid, Trina would probably forgive him. From what she had told him; he'd been manipulating her all his life…


	9. The True Story

I wrote a lot more for chapter eight, but somehow it got erased… so I suppose I'll just have to write it again… this time it'll be bigger and better though! Woohoo! Don't forget to review and not sue me for saying I own zoids when I really don't…

…………………

Chapter9

Bit lay stiffly on his cold bed, not caring to cover himself with the thick comforter. Nothing was enjoyable anymore, food, sleep, battle-plans; everything had become more of a necessity than a pleasure. He had never before appreciated what Leena had brought to the base, but without her it was evident that they were broken, some more than others. His conversation with Trina came flooding back to him, and he was suddenly overwhelmed with conflicting emotions. Loss, hope, anger, everything was entangled up in the others, and nothing was clear anymore. What Trina had suggested was not only dangerous and unwise, but almost traitorous as well. He thought back to the emotions that had welled up in him while he stared at the back of her head angrily. He remembered thinking that her dark, curly, brown locks were nowhere near as scintillating as Leena's and the green eyes that stared at him from their reflection in his window were nothing compared to Leena's either.

She had not budged an inch since they had begun their clipped conversation, and from the looks of it, she had no intentions of turning to face him, or moving at all. "I've heard about you, Bit Cloud, and I hope for Leena's sake that I can trust you; otherwise, she is lost" she said, her eyes burning brightly and her head held high. Bit narrowed his eyes and looked at her questioningly.

"What do you mean? What do you want?"

"I want to help your friend, but unlike Leon, I know Tristan very well, and I know exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. If you will let me, there is something you have to know about him before you do anything. You must not judge him harshly, circumstance has pushed him farther than even he knows." Bit nodded at her to go on, and she did.

"We were born in a small village, almost on the other side of Zi, the jungle surrounded us from all sides, and there were few outsiders that we came in contact with. That is how we grew up, Tristan and I. He always acted like the older one, and I was more than happy to let him; he protected me and sheltered me from the cruel, cold world, he was everything to me. He was the most kind and compassionate person you would ever meet. He was my hero.

"One day we were out picking fruit for my mother when he slipped and caught his foot in a bear trap. I panicked; I didn't know what to do, but he stayed calm somehow, and told me to run back to the village to get help. I had never run faster in my life, and though I slipped quite a few times and nearly sprained my ankle twice, I somehow made it to the village. I barely had any breath left in me, but I refrained from collapsing, and I managed to tell them what had happened. We ran all the way back to where I had left him, but he was nowhere to be seen. We searched for him for weeks, and I felt my world dying more and more, each minute that we couldn't find him. Finally, when the village accepted that he was gone for good, he returned. We were elated; no one could get enough of him, he was the center of attention for quite a while, but whenever we tried to ask him about what had happened, he would always shake his head and change the subject. We thought it was because the memory was still to harsh and raw for him to recount, but I knew differently.

"As time wore on he seemed more distracted, and suddenly he seemed downright angry. He shut himself off, and refused to talk to anyone… even me. Everyone was worried about him, me most of all, but there was nothing we could do.

"He would take to wandering through the jungle by himself, but he was a fool to believe that he was alone, because I shadowed him wherever he went. He was short-tempered and agitated, and it looked as though he was searching for something. I asked him about it a few times, but he would just shake his head and say nothing. One day, as he was searching through the forest, he found a cloak on the ground, it was dark green with a deep burgundy trim, I will never forget that cloak. It was beautiful and dangerous all at the same time… he seemed overjoyed when he found it, happier than I had seen him since he returned. Then, just as I was about to reveal myself, a man walked out of the bushes and said something to him. Tristan looked angry, but the man was simply annoyed. Tristan seemed to be pleading with the man, but he simply stood there with his hand outreached. Tristan suddenly threw the cloak at him and began to walk away. The man stood there for a minute, but turned and left the way he had come. Tristan was livid that evening, he said nothing, but the look in his eyes was clear enough, so I waited a few days to bring it up. He was angry that I had followed him, but calmed down when I threatened to go directly to our parents with the information, unless he told me what was going on. He looked annoyed at first, but then told me something that shut me up for good. He said that if I said anything to our parents, that he would run away and never look back, but if I kept his secret, he would take me with him when he left. I had no choice; I couldn't bear to be parted from him, so I agreed.

"He finally managed to find a way out of the village undetected, and true to his word, he took me with him. We went to the nearest town, but he knew that they would be searching for us, so we left as quickly as possible. We continued to hop from town to town, just like that and eventually I got the full story out of him. He said that the trap he had been caught in was left by the 'Hunters;' a small branch of the Backdraft group. He told me that when they had found him screaming in pain, caught in one of their traps, they had freed him immediately, and he'd passed out. When he'd awoken, he was at their base, which was camouflaged so no one could find them. They had kept him until he had fully recovered and then returned him to the village. Tristan told me that he had seen all of their magnificent zoids, and from that day he had vowed to become a pilot like them. When he'd found the cloak, he had known that the owner couldn't be too far from it, and he was right. The man who had emerged from the bushes had been the very same man that had found him the last time, Tristan made an offer to join the Hunters, but the man had rejected him, saying that he was too young and inexperienced. Tristan was heartbroken, but did not give up hope.

"Everything we own today is thanks to his cunning and intelligence," she said, he chest swelling with pride, "and just because he doesn't play by your rules, doesn't mean his victories are any less victorious. I'm sorry that he had to hurt you, but believe me, he will not hurt Leena; he's not that sort of person. Leon on the other hand- well, he has a personal grudge against Leon…" Bit looked at her in surprise.

"What sort of grudge?" he asked suspiciously.

"Leon- He- … Tristan was on the verge of acquiring five new zoids from some small inexperienced team, about four or five years ago, and just as Tristan delivered the final blow to end the game, Leon came in from behind, illegally entering the match and froze Tristan's zoid. I had to come in and take out Leon, but the damage was done, and we had to get out of there as fast as we could, there was no time for looting the zoids." Bit glared at her angrily.

"So that's why he took Leena? Because Leon messed up his thievery?"

"No," retorted Trina, whipping around to face him, "He took her because she knew too much, and that foolish Champ fellow was willing to shell out a lot of money to ensure her safety!"

"Foolish hunh?" Bit said, getting angrier with each word, "I suppose that wanting to keep you loved-ones from danger would seem foolish to a _criminal_!" Trina gasped, looking rather hurt, and Bit instantly regretted his words.

"The reason I said that was not because I'm a cold-hearted criminal, but because I wanted you to know that Tristan _isn't_. He might be greedy and insensitive at times, but he would never hurt her." Trina's eyes filled with emotion, and Bit felt like hitting himself. Insensitive? That probably described him as well…

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to talk to him, with me on your side, we can beat him at his own game…"

……………………………….

Bit rolled over, onto his stomach and heaved another sigh, how had it come to this?

………………………………

Sooooooo? What do you think? This was a fairly long one, no?

So now that you've read, and possibly enjoyed it, all that's left for you to do is click that review button! It's right under this sentence.

Come on… you know you want to.


	10. Missing You

**Chapter 3**

It had been three days since her encounter with Harry in the forest, and after three days of kicking Harry out of her little apartment, Leena was exhausted. But all of that time spent alone in the kitchen had begun to take its toll on her and she found herself thinking of things that never would have crossed her mind in other situations. She realized that the last thing she had ever said to Bit was that is was all his fault, when that was an obvious lie. She never picked on Jamie, Leon or her dad; it was always Bit! True, he was an annoying, conceited, jerk, but similar things had been said about her, and she wasn't sure that they were all false… she wondered if Bit was worried about her, or even cared! But every time she tried to imagine him worrying about her, she would see his triumphant grin while he helped himself to her cookies. "Of course he cares," she told herself sternly, "you've been teammates for years now; how could he _not_ care? You would be worried if _he _were kidnapped." Leena tried to imagine her reaction if he had been taken rather than her, and she gasped in surprise as she felt a painful tug at her heart. "That means nothing," she told herself assuredly, "I would feel the same if any of the others were kidnapped." But when she tried to imagine it, she realized that she was too much of a coward to take the chance of having her theory contradicted. She rolled over onto her stomach and propped her head up on one of the couch's large pillows. The scene outside her window was nothing special, just the same false trees and the same sound of the falsely bubbling brook. The more she tried to fight her thoughts, the more they floated to the top, so Leena gave up. She probably wouldn't see Bit or the others for quite a few months, so she might as well delve through her forbidden thoughts, because there was little else to do, unless she wanted to set Harry on fire again…

Leena smiled fondly as she remembered the date from hell. Harry had been going on and on about himself as usual, and Leena was left fiddling with her expensive dress and drumming her fingers on the table. Harry had brought her to an incredibly expensive restaurant, and an evening gown to go with it. Leena was hungry and bored, and incredibly annoyed that the guy sitting across from her was able to speak whole paragraphs without taking a breath. Enter Bit. Bit had said something about getting a job at one of the restaurants in town to pay off some dues, but she hadn't known that it was _that_ restaurant. He laid down a flaming dish of some sort, and tried to be as professional as possible while Leena was laughing uncontrollably at his outfit. Her had had somehow pushed a glass that was touching the platter and Harry was too busy yelling at Bit for "ruining" their date to notice that his sleeve was slowly catching on fire. Bit was the first to react (by pointing and laughing) and Leena was the second (by simply laughing). Harry was left to shake his arm wildly and then finally douse it in the large beaker of lemonade. That date had definitely been over and Bit had most certainly been fired, but as they drove towards the cargo together, they could barely stop laughing. Leena thought about how much fun it had been to laugh and joke with Bit, they didn't even have a single fight for the next few days! Leena thought again about the zoid tournament they had been watching together before she had left to see Tristan, she remembered the feeling of elation and the rush she got when the team they were rooting for had won, and how Bit had almost hugged her when they had taken out the black Tigra. Leena knew that she would have baked Bit all the cookies in the world if he could only come and watch a game with her right now. But she knew that wouldn't happen.

Leena realized that she missed his smiles, all of them. She missed the smile he wore after winning a battle, the one he got when he said something clever, the one he had when he got new parts for his Liger, and even the one he had when he beat her at something… Leena she realized how much she had taken for granted when she had been at the base, and she buried her face in her pillow sadly. It didn't matter how she felt now; hopes of her rescue seemed dim, and hopes of release, dimmer still…

Bit paced his room repeatedly. Trina was in the jeep waiting for him, and everyone else had gone to town for one reason or another, Bit was all alone with his thoughts. Trina had handed him the letter he was supposed to place on the table before he left, but qualms continued to drop into his mind like hailstones. Leena could be anywhere, and there was no guarantee that Tristan would actually fall for their ruse, if it was a ruse at all –Trina could be double-crossing him, and he could be blindly walking into a trap. Despite these thoughts and others like them, Bit grabbed the letter, put on his jacket and walked out of his room, convinced that if there was a chance to save Leena, then it was worth it.

Trina had told him that bringing Liger along would be crucial, and though the thought of endangering him sent a painful tug at his heart, Bit knew that he wouldn't have gone without his trusty zoid anyhow.


	11. On My Side

**Happy holidays and New Year guys!**

**Thanks to everyone who's reviewed and otherwise supported me, you guys were definitely inspiring!**

**Here's another chapter, hope you like it!**

……………

**Chapter11**

The moon inched up to the zenith and the stars shone unnaturally bright, but despite these distractions, Bit Cloud could not bring himself to focus on anything other than one person. This was the same person, he told himself warily, who had made his life unbearable at times, annoyed him to the point of madness, beaten him to a bloody pulp, screamed at him until he was deaf and chased him around the base until his legs threatened to give out from under him. But this was also the same person, said an unruly voice from deep within the chasms of his mind, who had believe in him when no one else would, the same person who laughed at his jokes when no one else got them, the same person who understood what it meant to be a zoid warrior, and understood it perfectly. Leena may not have been perfect, he realized, but neither was he, and it dawned on him that in her many flaws and imperfections lay her perfection, at least for him. Bit sighed and shifted his feet uncomfortably as he tried to dispel his thoughts. Liger gave a soft growl, and Bit pushed himself up with his elbows to see what had caught Liger's attention. Trina was busily pulling her shawl tighter around her shoulders in an attempt to beat back the frigid night air, and standing up at the same time, dusting off her worn clothing.

They had been traveling for nearly a week now, and no sign of the Crash Cargo appeared, nor any trace of it having been there. As hopeless as the scheme had been in the beginning, it was even more hopeless now, and the little trust that Trina had won from Bit before their departure had all but diminished into open suspicion.

"Where're you sneaking off to?" demanded Bit acridly. Trina lifted her head to meet his eyes, surprised at his harsh tone. They were both tired, cold and hungry, but that was no reason to discontinue common courtesy…

"We're running low on firewood, and I saw a good bunch of it a little ways down the road" she said, pointing a frail finger in the direction that the sun had set. Bit grunted, unconvinced.

"Why didn't you stop earlier?" he said, letting an accusatory tone settle into his words. Trina sucked in a breath sharply, as though stung. She wet her lips cautiously, and stared into his brooding eyes with trepidation.

"I'm on your side, Bit. Why can't you see that I'm trying to help you?"

"How can you be on my side when you've made it clear that you're still on his?" He asked, angrily.

"You can't look at the world as though it were monochromatic! Just because something isn't good, doesn't mean that it's evil! You can't judge everyone by the same standards Bit! We were never meant to lead the same lives, and hard times prey upon strong minds just as much as they do weak ones! Tristan is no fool, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a victim as well! How can you expect to ever be called a hero if you give up on someone who is well within your ability to restore?"

"I don't want to be a hero," Bit growled, "I did not agree to this because I wanted glory or fame! I came for Leena, and only Leena!" Trina's features softened in the firelight, and the anger dropped from her voice.

"I know why you are here Bit, and I promise you that you have not come in vain, but if we are to succeed, then you need to trust me!" Leena continued to hold his eyes in her gaze, until he finally nodded his assent, however reluctantly.

With that, Trina disappeared into the darkness, her tallow shawl fluttering behind her noiselessly.

Amidst the winking stars, Bit wondered if he would ever see Leena again; perfect in all of her imperfections.

………………..

Despite Harry's dogged attempts, Leena had managed to keep her quarters Champ-free for an entire four and a half days, but it was the last half that was becoming difficult.

"LEENA!" came a shrill cry as Harry inevitably discovered another one of her ingenious booby-traps, "DARLING, I'M STUCK! LEENA! PLEASE LET ME IN!!!"

Leena smirked to herself and leaned against a wall as she watched Harry wriggle about, hanging upside-down from a rope which had bound his left leg to one of the taller trees. His desperate attempts to free himself were all in vain however, and Leena gleefully snapped as many pictures of the helpless zoid warrior as she could; this would be one for the wall...

Since she had nothing else to do, Leena had found a new past time; torturing Harry. She had always shunned his attentions in the past, and though he had been literally the only man in sight for about a month or so, the thought of being with Harry Champ was still revolting to Leena. So she had decided that if he couldn't bring her peace by leaving her alone, and he couldn't bring her happiness by being someone else, he could at least bring her amusement by just being himself… she had begun to become quite sedulous and keen at placing the right traps in the right places, and Harry had fallen into nearly every one of them…

Leena gazed upon her 'Wall of Harry,' fondly; it was covered in pictures of Harry in various traps, some painful, some amusing, and some downright embarrassing… But she certainly had to hand it to him; she thought wryly, he was definitely persistent.

"What's going on here?" queried a strange voice. Leena froze, she knew that voice… she turned to look out of the window and was rewarded by the sight of the very same annoying robot standing below Harry. "Is the girl causing trouble?" it asked in its spine-chilling, monotone voice.

"Not at all! Replied Harry quickly, "we're just playing a little game! right darling?" Leena tensed, but she knew that if she didn't go along with Harry, the robot would report directly to Tristan, who would not be as forgiving, and in all probability would send more of his robots to watch her.

"Yes, of course!" she said sweetly, "what did you think we were doing?" she asked the robot. The annoying metal bucket looked unconvinced, so she decided to convince it…

Leena swiftly pulled a loose string on her trap, which released Harry's foot, landing him on top of the robot with an odd 'crunch'.

"Well there you have it! It looks like our game's over! See you tomorrow Harry!" and with a flip of her hair, Leena disappeared into the apartment, holding her camera victoriously.

………………………..

Half an hour had passed since she had cut Harry loose, and Leena was busily trying to arrange her newest pictures of Harry on her wall. A knock resounded in the room. Leena lifted her head slowly, wondering who it could be, Harry wasn't smart enough to dodge her traps, and the robot certainly wasn't coming back any time soon. 'Either way,' she thought warily, as she armed herself with a kitchen knife, "better safe than sorry." Leena walked to the door and opened it quickly, there; standing with a large cast on his arm and a heavy frown on his face, stood Harry Champ. Leena made a quick motion to close the door, but he reacted with surprising agility and caught her hand.

"Leena," he said calmly, "we need to talk," and with that he released her hand and strode into the apartment. Leena gaped at him openly; this was certainly not the Harry _she_ knew…

Leena scowled as Harry made himself comfortable on _her_ sofa. True, he had paid for all of it, but still…

"What do you want Harry?"

Harry turned his head towards her, a strange look settled upon his features. "Leena, I understand that I may not be the perfect, and I know what you think of me, but _please_, all I've ever wanted was for you to be happy, so tell me; what do you hate about me so much?"

Leena was taken aback, in all her years of knowing Harry, he had never admitted to a single flaw, and now here he was, asking her to name them!

"Well…" she started uncertainly, "you're egoistical, arrogant, spoiled, self-centered, selfish, immature, annoying –did I mention conceited?"

By the look on Harry's face, she hadn't… Harry turned his head from her, as though he could bear no more, and suddenly noticed her 'Wall of Harry'. He got up and walked towards it silently.

"Do you hate me?" he asked, still facing the wall.

It was a simple question, and it deserved a simple answer, but somehow she could not bring herself to say it

"Why are you asking me this?" she said suddenly, pulling at her red hair in embarrassment.

"Just answer the question; yes or no?" He said, fingering one of the more memorable pictures.

Leena's mouth contorted angrily, what right did he have barging in here like this and playing twenty questions?

"YES!" she blurted out suddenly, "Of course I hate you! You've annoyed me more than anyone over these past years; and I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU!!!"

Leena was flushed, her chest was heaving angrily, her fists were clenched and her teeth were as well, but Harry made no move to console her as he usually did. Instead, he turned around and walked towards her, looking her in the eye.

"Why?"

Leena unclenched her fists, and looked at him suspiciously.

"What is this all about Harry?"

"Do you want the truth?" he asked seriously. Leena nodded. "Then here it is; I love you Leena Toros, and I want you to love me back, but if all I do is make you unhappy, then I can't help but think that you would be better off without me."

Leena's eyes widened. Either the aging process was coming on _way_ too fast, or she had heard him incorrectly; there was no way that Harry would willingly leave Leena.

"What's going on Harry? Why are you saying this?"

"Just tell me why you hate me and I'll leave you alone."

"I already have!"

"You told me what you hate _about_ me, but not _why_ you hate me."

Leena's eyes narrowed, none of this made any sense.

"Do you hate that I try so hard?" he asked, "or that I keep coming back, even when you push me away?" he said, pointing at the wall, "or is it that I believe in myself, even when no one else does?"

"N- no… you're just not my type Harry," She said diplomatically.

"Then who _is_ your type?" he spat out angrily, "_Tristan_???" Leena gasped. "Because at the rate you're going, you're going, you're going to be alone for the rest of your life."

With that, Harry walked out, disappearing amongst the fragile greenery, leaving Leena rooted to the spot, mouth hanging open.


	12. Second Thoughts

**Thanks for all the support guys! I truly appreciate every word of it!**

**As for Harry (who you all seem to detest) he's not going anywhere anytime soon, so I suppose it's just a matter of getting used to him… or not… you never know –mysterious twinkling sound **

……………

**Chapter 12**

Leena lay sprawled across the berry red sofa in the living room, yet another day had passed, and no Harry, she was almost beginning to worry –out of pure boredom of course… when she worried, she tended to eat, and become violent, but the stupid robot hadn't restocked her supply of cookies, even though she'd been out for a week, and there was not Harry nor Bit to roughhouse with.

The two boys had an astonishingly large amount of differences between them, and seeing as she had nothing else to do, Leena decided to compare the two.

Bit was a much better pilot than Harry, there was simply no comparison there, but by virtue of his money, Harry certainly had the better arsenal (which Leena was secretly in love with). Harry was a man of limited talents, but he certainly had one other amiable quality –he was completely and utterly devoted to Leena. Harry could not go a day without singing her praises, and though Leena was disgusted by the sight of him (not that he was incredibly ugly or anything like that) she was always secretly thrilled to have her ego inflated in such a manner.

Despite his numerous charms chough he still had a growing list of inadequacies, which Leena was all too happy to list off. First of all, Harry was a complete and utter bore; he spoke and thought of nothing other than: himself, Leena, his money and his Zoids. He wasn't an incredibly gifted pilot, but he was good enough to hold his own. A large part of his 'talent' stemmed from the fact that he had a near endless supply of Zoids, ammunition and parts. Harry was hardly brave, but he was certainly stubborn (even when it wasn't to his advantage). As far as Leena could see, Harry was just not good enough for her.

Then there was Bit –the hot-headed, clumsy, thieving zoid pilot who almost matched Harry in his ability to get on her nerves. He was constantly finding new ways to annoy her; interrupting her baths, stealing her cookies, and generally being himself. When she had first been locked here she had been partially mollified by the thought that she wouldn't have to see the blond brat for quite a while. This had been a happy thought for about two weeks, and then it became a source of worry –just how long was 'a while' anyways? What if she never saw him again? What if their last meeting was to forever be a contentious one?

She realized that she was being stupid; what was there to miss about Bit Cloud anyways? He was an incredible pilot (no denying that), but what else was there to miss about him? He talked too much, he ate too much, he laughed too much, and he argued too much! Not to mention his annoying habit of assuming that he was always right… Over all, Bit was just too much for her –why on earth should she miss his sky-blue eyes? his tussled blond hair? his quirky smile and his mirthful laugh? Any why should she even _think_ about missing that mischievous glint in his eyes when he thought he had gotten away with something? Why?

It occurred to Leena that it was too late to be asking these questions –she already did miss him; but all that meant was that she would have to do a better job of distracting herself, because thoughts like these would do her no good. Who knew when she would see them again?

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Leena looked warily in the direction of the door, but decided that there was no point in _not_ answering it… So she lifted herself off of the couch and slowly made for the door.

"Ms. Leena Toros?" asked the irritating bolt-bucket.

"Who else would it be?" she said in annoyance.

"You have a delivery," it said, ignoring her steely glare, as it extended a prettily wrapped box towards her. Leena snatched up the box and shut the door without another word.

The wrapping was golden and shiny, and there was a scarlet bow on the top. Though Leena was sure that it was from Harry, her curiosity got the better of her, and she tore through the paper like a demon. Inside was a beautiful peach gown –and a note. Leena lingered on the gown for another minute before she picked up the note.

'_Dear Leena,_

_I hope I did not upset you too much when I last saw you –I was feeling a bit under the weather. I hope you will forgive me and accept my invitation to a dinner (out of your apartment). I will meet you at eight o'clock tonight (please wear the dress)._

_Love,_

_Harry Champ_


	13. Discomfort

**Keep the reviews coming guys! I love hearing from you because I have no other way of knowing if you guys are booing or cheering… Last chapter didn't have much entertainment/action, but this one certainly will! Get ready for some drama!**

……………

Leena ground her teeth angrily; the girl in the mirror looked much too feminine for her tastes, -especially for a girl about to go out on a date with Harry Champ… She could have refused him, but she'd been bored out of her mind these past few weeks, and needed a change of scenery. Harry had promised that they would be dining somewhere that didn't require being in her apartment, so how could she refuse? After staring at the same walls and fake foliage for a month, Leena was pretty desperate for entertainment…

Sure, Harry wasn't the catch of the day but if worst came to worst she could always just tie him in a knot and leave him to rot. And who knew, maybe there'd be more to eat than those microwavable dinners that were always piled up in her fridge… she wondered if she should just scrap the dress idea and wear her usual outfit, but at that moment, a knock sounded on the door. Leena took a breath and forced herself to think about anything other than the fact that Harry would be waiting on the other side.

The high heels that had arrived shortly after the dress were difficult to walk in, and Leena awkwardly navigated through the soft-carpeted room in order to get to the door. She gripped the handle tightly and then opened the door. There stood Harry, in an expensive-looking suit, holding a bouquet of stunningly beautiful daffodils and roses with his un-broken arm. "You look lovely, Leena," he said, offering her the bouquet. She took the flowers hesitatingly, and set them down on a stand next to the door.

"Thanks Harry, you're looking pretty sharp yourself…" she supplied awkwardly. Rather than preening and going on about how much trouble he had gone to in order to set up the whole thing and how much his suit had cost, Harry simply smiled and extended his arm. Cautiously, Leena took it and they walked towards a small vehicle that looked somewhat like a safari jeep, but much smaller.

The jeep and its robotic driver began to tumble off into the thicket, and Leena barely had time to register which direction they were heading when they arrived at a small bungalow with a little creek running behind it. The bungalow was lit up beautifully and the creek was delightfully soothing. Needless to say – Leena was beginning to become a little unnerved.

Ten minutes later, they were seated in a quaint little room with Harry's two robots waiting on them. The food was quite good, but Harry had barely said a word to her the entire time. What was he up to? With nothing to talk about, since no one was talking, Leena satiated herself with checking the clock every so often and taking larger and larger sips of sparkling wine.

……………………………..

Bit struggled to get more comfortable in Liger's cockpit, but the terrain was rocky and with every jerk that liger made, Bit went careening into yet another sharp piece of hardware…He sighed and sat up, there would be no rest tonight.

A light flashed on the console, informing him that the hover cargo was trying to reach him, but he simply ignored it. They had tried to contact him several times over the past week, but he had persisted in ignoring them. Trina had said that it would be best if they remained uninvolved, at least for now, but Bit had his reasons as well. The team would have infinite questions, questions like why he had decided to trust Trina, why he had left without them, and why he was the one going after Leena; they were valid questions, but they were questions that he wasn't ready to answer, questions that he _couldn't _answer…

He tried to imagine what the team was doing. Dr. Toros would probably be sitting alone wondering why his luck had gone so sour, unable to take comfort in his zoid models anymore. Jamie would probably be making dinner and worrying about everyone else. Brad would probably be sitting by himself, acting nonchalant, when in truth he was just as concerned as the rest of them. Leon would probably be working doggedly to find information on Tristan and the whereabouts of his sister. And Leena? What would she be doing? Wallowing in her misery inside of her 'virtual forest'? Escaping from Harry Champ's amorous attempts? Who knew?

…………………………………

**Sooooo? What do you think? **

**Review and let me know! (Why does that sound like a catch phrase in some cheesy commercial?)**

**Oh, and by the way, if you happened to notice, I took your advice requim17. So if any of you happen to have any more bits of advice or tiny little things that just bug you, don't hesitate to tell me!**


	14. The Proposal

**Well! I finally have another one out! Sorry for taking so long, but I've just had so much on my mind –and I'm just incredibly lazy these days… this one's an okay length I think. Enjoy!**

…………………………

Bit snarled slightly at the endlessly blinking light and decided to at least find out who it was that had been trying to reach him for the past minute. He had just begun to fall asleep too.

Oh joy, it was Trina…

He pressed the button next to the blank screen and her face instantly appeared where previously there had been beautiful darkness. "WHY WEREN'T YOU PICKING UP?! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR EVER!" Her exasperated voice screeched through the surround-sound speakers. Bit winced and rubbed his red-rimmed eyes, unable to answer. "Well, whatever your reason is," she continued in a calmer, "it doesn't matter now, because we've finally found what we've been looking for!" Bit's eyes shot open and he sat up –suddenly her voice was much more welcome…

"We've found them? Is it the Crash Cargo? Are you sure?" he blurted out before she could open her mouth.

Trina smirked at his excitement, but he could tell that she was ecstatic to have found them as well. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure that it's them. I've lived in that thing for years; there's no way I could mistake it for anything else."

Bit's heart rate was painfully fast, and he was itching to simply attack Tristan and settle all debts mono-a-mono –but he knew that he couldn't. It wasn't that he didn't have faith in his skills, but it was that Tristan had Leena, and he had to be sure that she was out of harm's way before he did anything foolish. The foolish part would come later…

Trina probably recognized the look on his face, because she sent him a reproachful look of her own. "Don't forget the plan Bit; it's our only chance to pull this off without anyone getting hurt. Tristan's a stronger warrior than you know; he could beat us both with his hands tied, and I've seen you fight…" Bit took the warning with a grudging acquiescence and shrugged.

Satisfied, Trina went over the plan one last time, and they both set up camp for the night. Sleep came slowly for the two zoid pilots, and when it did, it was a motley assortment of nightmares.

……………………

Leena looked away uncomfortably as Harry leaned towards her and looked into her lavender eyes. "Leena, if you could have any zoid in the world, what would it be?" Leena looked back in surprise, this was number twenty-eight on her growing mental list of 'Out-of-Character Things That Harry Has Done' on that evening. He had been kind, considerate, flattering, humble, and courteous so far, and now he was actually asking her opinion? Hell must have frozen over when she wasn't looking…

"Uh… well, I'm not really sure" she stuttered. Then Leena straightened up, her eyes seeking Harry's, "Look Harry, I don't know what kind of scheme you're trying to pull or what exactly you're trying to prove, but it's not going to work on me! So I'd appreciate it if you'd just call your cronies and drive me back; I'm getting tired of all of this." Harry smiled slightly and straightened up to match Leena's posture.

"I'm not trying to pull anything Leena" Harry began calmly. "I asked you why you didn't like me and though I didn't really get a straight answer from you, I did go home that day with a clearer picture of our relationship in my head."

Leena grimaced and growled something which sounded suspiciously like 'what relationship' but Harry chose to ignore her.

"I realized that despite the fact that I could give you anything you wanted, the reason that you were shoving me away was because I wasn't giving you the spotlight that you deserved." Leena's mouth hung open. Harry took this as a good sign and continued, "I'm not saying that I'm never going to talk again," Leena sighed in disappointment, you couldn't have everything… "But I will let you make the decisions from now on; where we go on dates, what movies we see etc."

Leena's features hardened at his words. She wasn't some sort of plant which he could cultivate by pouring on the right type of fertilizer! And besides, there wouldn't be very many decisions to make if Tristan kept her a prisoner here forever…

"Harry, I appreciate the gesture, but I'm tired and-"

"Say no more my dear!" said Harry as he stood suddenly and helped her up. He drove her back 'home' and kissed her hand in parting. Leena really had no idea what to make of it.

'Is it really so bad?' she thought to herself. 'He's rich, nice (to me), in love with me, devoted, and now he's planning to be completely subservient…' In truth, there was really nothing wrong with the picture, but something still held her back.

After an hour of lying awake in bed and deliberating, Leena finally pushed the nagging thought out of her head –if there was nothing wrong, then why should she fight it? Maybe Harry _was_ the one for her. Maybe this was how it was meant to be…

Either way, she would give it a shot. How could it hurt? She was already stuck here with him…

………………………….

Bit was the first to awake, and he was glad he had. The sunrise was a beautiful thing to behold, especially in the middle of the desert, but it was a signal for a far less innocent beginning –today was the day. If Trina wasn't completely confident about the plan, she didn't show it as she rose stiffly from her sleeping bag and packed up camp without a word. The chilly morning air was swiftly warming up, and the two of them knew that they had very little time; according to Trina, Tristan was always up with the sun, and that was the best time to catch him off of his guard. They were a little behind schedule, but so what?

They muttered a couple of reminders to each other and then climbed into their respective transports and headed off towards the black dot which shone brilliantly in the morning light.

Liger was perfectly content to walk towards the black fortress which most likely held a horrid fate for him, but Bit was more than uneasy enough for the two of them. If Trina's plan fell to shreds, they could all be in danger… But what other choice did he have? He couldn't leave Leena in that horrid place? Who knew how he was treating her? At that thought, Bit's hands clenched into fists and his green eyes narrowed –he was going to get Leena back.

Trina's jeep began to slow down, and Bit had Liger to do the same. The Crash Cargo was hovering only a couple hundred yards away; this was the point of no return. The dark glossy exterior made chills run down Bit's spine; how many pilots had Tristan swindled in order to amass such a fortune? Could he confront him if it came down to it? Would he be able to save Leena?

Bit had no time to answer his own thoughts as a large door opened without warning, sending a huge spray of speckled sand towards them. Liger growled and shook his head. Tristan stepped out of the dark gaping doorway, flanked on either side by menacing-looking robots.

"Trina? You've returned."

"Caught up is more like it," Trina replied with a hint of agitation.

"Come on Trina, you don't actually expect me to believe that you just lost track of time and forgot to come back with Leon, can you? You've always been good with numbers, and I know when I've been double crossed…" he said, as a shadow passed over his pleasant features.

"You know I would never betray you Tristan!" Trina said, almost frantically, "But I just couldn't let you take Leon! It was so long ago! And he doesn't deserve to be hurt any more than he already has been!"

Tristan sneered at her comments, but refrained from retaliating. "So, you've brought the Ultimate X I asked for" he said as his eyes slid towards Liger. As he spoke, Liger lowered the cockpit and Big got out. "And you've brought Bit Cloud!" He said as his eyes grew wide. "Why?" he asked harshly, swiveling around to face Trina, "Why did you bring him?"

Trina put on a soothing look and spoke calmly, just as she had practiced doing when she'd gone out to gather firewood. "Liger Zero only cooperates with Bit; no other pilot can control him. So I thought it might be more useful to you to have a zoid that actually functioned, rather than one which went berserk every time you went near it."

Tristan scowled and squinted against the increasingly harsh sunlight. "And you?" he said turning to Bit, "Why would you agree to this?"

Bit held Tristan's glare, and returned it with as much force as he received it. "I'm not here because I want to help you, or because I have anything to gain by joining you. I'm here because you have Leena, and we need her back. I'm willing to negotiate a deal that will work out for the both of us." Tristan's glare receded microscopically and the corner of his mouth donned a slight smirk.

"Is that so?" he asked. His tone would have sounded jovial to anyone who didn't know the cruelty that lay just beneath it. "Well then, let's go in, shall we? The sun's beginning to bother my eyes." With that, Tristan turned on his heel and marched back up the ramp, and through the doorway, with Trina, Bit and his robot guards solemnly trailing behind him like a funeral procession.

When they were inside and settled uncomfortably on otherwise comfortable leather chairs, Tristan began to speak.

"So, Bit Cloud," he said, obviously enjoying his upper hand, "what sort of a deal have you come to make with me?" As he spoke, he walked towards an expensive-looking painting, and pretended to examine it, s though his conversation with Bit was one of trifling importance to him.

Bit tried his best to keep the expression on his face neutral; he was sure that there were cameras everywhere, and though it was only natural for him to be angry, Bit felt uneasy at someone scrutinizing his expressions on film. "I'm here for Leena and only Leena-"

"Yeah, yeah –I've heard this rot already;" Tristan said, waving an impatient hand at Bit, "what is your proposal?"

"I'll agree to stay with you until you find someone else to handle Liger," he said slowly, his voice faltering slightly, "and in return, I want Leena to go free." Tristan smirked triumphantly.

"So! Bit Cloud, in my service! I never thought I'd see the day! CU99-P," he said, motioning to one of the flashier-looking robots lining the large antechamber, "get the prisoner, and don't tell her anything –I want this to be a surprise…"

………………………………

**So? What do you think so far? Too fast? Too slow? Too hot? Too cold? Just right? **


	15. And We All Fall Down

**Well… I know it's been a long time, but I was just so busy! I've been looking for a new job and let me tell you that between half a million tests, redrafting my resume and managing to maintain my already pathetic social life, it's hard to find time to sit down and write! But here it is despite the odds!**

………………………………………

Loud clanging noises resounded sharply in the dark hallway, and Tristan winced. He had spent over five months working on CU99-P, he was his favorite robot, and now that he had Bit Cloud, more valuable than Leena…

An inhuman yell followed the previous noises, and a robotic sigh of exasperation was heard as CU99-P and Leena Toros emerged from the shadows. The robot had three arms wound tightly around Leena's arms and torso, and Leena didn't look too happy with the situation. In fact, 'not too happy' was a bit of an exaggeration –'deliriously angry' sounded more like it. Leena yelled and kicked at her metallic captor a few more times until she realized where she was, and more importantly, who she was with.

Leena's eyes focused on Tristan, and then they narrowed into a murderous rage. She then saw Trina and her glare became tempered with confusion and uncertainty. Finally she saw Bit standing a little off to the side looking confused, happy, afraid, and shocked all at once. Leena became limp in the robot's arms and her face mirrored Bit's. They stared at each other for a few moments more, until Tristan finally broke the silence.

"Well, I hate to disturb this beautiful reunion, but we _do_ have business to attend to."

Leena turned to Tristan questioningly, "Business?"

"Yes," he said gleefully, "Bit Cloud has offered himself and his Ultimate X in return for your freedom!"

"My freedom?" Leena asked, unable to do anything but repeat.

"Now listen here, Tristan! I'm only staying until you find someone else."

"Yes, yes," Tristan said noncommittally. "I can see that you two are dying to catch up, so I'll just leave you for a couple of minutes. I have a little catching up to do as well…" he said, looking towards Trina. Trina gulped, but followed him out of the room.

……………………………………………….

"You're going to trade Liger… for _me_!?" Leena asked incredulously. Bit nervously fingered the soft fringes on the pillow that he had begun twisting into a pretzel.

"Well…" Bit knew he couldn't tell her the truth, because he was positive that the room was bugged, but lying to her seemed wrong for some reason. "I –we had to get you back, and if this is the only way, then I guess we have no other choice."

Leena lowered her head guiltily. "I'm sorry that all of this had to happen –I'm so sorry Bit," she said suddenly, grabbing his hands with her own, "you don't deserve this! This is all my fault!"

Bit looked shocked, but he quickly recovered, "Leena, you can't blame yourself for this –none of us can. All you can do now is go home and–"

"Bit you can't expect me to leave you here with Tristan!"

"What other choice do we have? It's either me or you, and though Doc treats me like a son, I'm sure he'd rather have you –besides, I'll be back as soon as Tristan finds a replacement pilot…"

Leena couldn't meet his eyes. It was _her_ fault that he was now a prisoner. It was _her_ fault that Liger was a prisoner. It was even her fault that everyone had been worried sick about her.

She brought her eyes back to his and was about to say something when Tristan barged in the door with a malicious grin on his face. "Well," he said gleefully, "It looks as though you've had enough time to chat –now it's my turn to say something; the deal's off!" Bit stared in shock, and Leena looked confused.

"What do you mean 'off' ?" Bit demanded angrily.

"I mean exactly what I said: 'the deal's off'" he repeated slowly. "I can see why you came here and I'm calling your bluff."

"What bluff?" Bit asked hotly, standing up and stomping towards Tristan, "And what makes you think that I'm going to stand for this?"

"I know that you'll stand for this the same way I know Leena will stand for this; you've got too much to loose…" Tristan smirked malignantly and strode out of the room, motioning towards his robotic guards who instantly enveloped Leena and Bit in their gleaming arms.

"Ahh, young love' Tristan thought as he sauntered down the hallway towards his chambers, 'such a useful thing…'

………………………………………….

Harry didn't even bother to protest when the robot guard grabbed his arm and dragged him out of his apartment along with Benjamin and Sebastian, saying nothing but, "Master Tristan is expecting you". Harry supposed he could finish combing his hair later, but he still tried to fix it with his fingers. The dark marble hallways seemed perfect for any number of frightening creatures to be hiding, and waiting for some unsuspecting victim to step towards them. For this reason (and the fact that the robot still had its hand clamped firmly on his sore arm) Harry tried to walk as close to the middle of the hallway as possible. If he hadn't been walking in a perfectly straight line Harry might not have tripped over a certain sharp object on the ground. While picking himself up, Harry looked back sullenly at what had brought him to the hard, shiny floor. He gasped –it was Leena's bracelet…

The rest of the walk to Tristan's office was taken up by Sebastian and Benjamin's incessant arguing and Harry's thoughtful silence. What had Tristan done with Leena? Tristan wasn't inhuman, but he was still quite cruel when he needed to be, and Leena hadn't been there when he'd called her earlier –but then again, when did she ever pick up his phone calls?

A door suddenly opened up ahead and the robot dragged him inside. The walls were blood-red, and dark, velvety curtains were partially pulled back to reveal a beautiful oasis (an illusion that Harry himself had worked on for weeks). "Harry!" Tristan began cheerfully, "I'm so glad to see you!" Harry warily pulled his aching arm from the robot's grip and stationed himself as far from master and servant as possible.

"What do you want Tristan?"

"I've got good news for you Harry," Tristan said pretending to inspect his nails, "you've been set free!"

"What?"

"That's right, you and your robots are free to go!"

"Free to-"

"If you're just going to repeat everything I say, what the point in opening your mouth?" Tristan asked irritably. "And by the way, Leena no longer needs you, so she'll be staying here…"

"That wasn't part of the deal! And as far as I can remember, I was never a prisoner!"

"Then you were foolishly deluded! CU," he said gesturing towards the robot in the corner, "Escort these gentlemen outside." And without another word the three of them soon found themselves tumbling into a sand dune, with sand in their mouths and the Crash Cargo speeding away… with Leena.

……………………………………..

When Bit awoke, the first thing he realized was that he was lying on the floor of an incredibly large forest. The second thing he noticed was that he was all alone, except for the centipede that was busily crawling up his leg… He picked himself up quickly and tried vainly to massage out the throbbing pain in his left arm. Trees stretched on as far as the eye could see despite the fact that only a minute ago he had been in the middle of the desert on the Crash cargo… what was going on? "LEENA! TRINA! HARRY? IS ANYONE OUT THERE? ANYONE?!" Bit sat down once more, his head was still swimming and no one had answered him. Suddenly, a large crashing sound came from the ticket and he saw an angry-looking robot emerge. How he knew the robot was angry was anybody's guess, but this robot was certainly pissed off. "Uhh… hi there, I'm Bit Cloud and I–"

"You know Leena Toros?" The robot said, cutting him off rudely.

"Yes, do you?" Bit asked hopefully.

"KNOW HER?" the robot replied, "She's the reason I've had to go in for repairs at least once a week for the past three months!"

"Ehh… well, yeah… she can be a bit violent…" The robot remained silent. "Well, I don't know how I got here, and I'm not sure how to get out, but I need to get back to the Crash Cargo! Can you help me?" To his immense surprise, the robot began to laugh, and laugh… and laugh…

"Bit Cloud" it managed between chuckles, "this _is_ the Crash Cargo! You're a prisoner here! Let me show you to your lodgings." And with that, the robot began to walk off towards a gap between the trees with Bit bewilderedly trailing behind him.

………………………

Leena awoke to find herself lying on a white and expensive-looking couch, in fact, the entire room seemed to be furnished in as opulent a manner as the embroidered couch. She blinked a few times and felt her memory slowly returning to her. She remembered steel arms gripping her tightly and something about Bit and then a sharp pain in her arm and then darkness. She attempted to lift herself, but found that a thick cuff and chain was tied around left arm and that she could only go as far as to sit up. "Refrain from moving too much, it may be detrimental to your health." Leena whirled around to find a robot standing over her.

"How dare you treat me this way? Let me out this instant! What have you done with Bit?"

"The other prisoner is safely in our custody."

"I want to see him! Where is he?"

"Master Tristan wishes to speak to you first." As if on cue, the large mahogany doors swung open to reveal a grinning Tristan.

"Leena–"

"Tristan! You backstabbing little roach! How dare you treat me this way! Bit will never work for you!"

"I know." Tristan said quietly, "Which is why I need you."

"What do you mean?" Leena asked warily.

"I mean that he could never bring himself to do anything that would hurt you –at least not now…"

"_Now_?"

"Now that he's in love with you!" He said maliciously, "Take care Leena…" And with that he left as suddenly as he had come, this time with his robot in tow, leaving behind a bewildered Leena.

"Love?" she asked the empty room.

……………………………

Bit turned around for a third time to make sure he had not missed anything. All those months of worrying that Leena was being ill-treated had been for naught –she'd been living like a queen! His eyes turned yet again to the large wall of pictures which seemed dedicated to Harry in some sort of anguish –and she'd been having fun too! Bit took a deep breath and tried to calm himself; a cage was a cage no matter what it was made of.

"I see that you've seen cruel collection of photos," the robot began, "but that was back when she still hated him."

Bit looked up suddenly. "Hat_ed_?"

"Ah yes, she used to be so cruel to him, but ever since their date she's definitely warmed up to him. In my opinion, a little love is exactly what she needs in her life –she's too high-strung!"

Bit's eyes narrowed and he looked up at the robot accusingly, "Where is she now?"

"Oh, Tristan wanted to speak with her, I'm sure she'll join us soon enough." Bit glared at the metal creature for no reason at all.

"You can leave now." The robot seemed taken aback by his sudden change in attitude but left the building without another word.

"Love?" he asked the empty room.


	16. The Plan

**Sorry that it's been so long in the coming, but I promise that it was worth it! I know I shouldn't make excuses for myself so I won't even bother… here it is (my longest one so far!) I hope you like it! And thank you all for your sweet reviews! They make my soul feel glad! ******

The ugly curtains swayed gently in the breeze, brushing against Bit's hair and he sighed angrily; no matter what he did to distract himself, the robot's words continued to haunt him. How had this happened? How on earth had Leena of all people fallen in love with someone whom she had sworn to hate for all eternity? Bit had a sinking feeling that Leena's change in feelings was affecting him much more than it should have, but he was too distraught to care. He had tried to get the issue off of his mind but for one reason or another it continued to torment him. He looked around at his surroundings disdainfully; perhaps the reason that he couldn't get the issue out of his mind was because Harry seemed to be staring at him from every corner of the room… There was a rug with Harry's face in a checker-board pattern, a sofa with pillows shaped like his head and even a Harry Champ lamp! Bit sighed for the hundredth time that day and walked to the window, hoping against hope that Harry had not carved his name on to any of the surrounding trees…

Suddenly, the crunching of dirt under many pairs of feet caught Bit's attention. A few moments later, the door flew open to reveal a stoic Trina, and angry Leena and the robot from before. Trina greeted Bit, but for some reason Leena refused to meet his eye. Trina dismissed the robot and turned towards Bit slowly.

"Bit," Trina started, "I've heard about what Tristan did, and I'm afraid to say that I was expecting this all along…" Bit looked outraged, but Trina continued before he could say anything. "I did not mean to betray your trust in any way –I did this for your own good! Tristan can see right though almost any lie, and I knew that there was no way he would believe you, so I-"

"So you double-crossed me!" shouted Bit angrily.

"Yes! I admit that I did, and I will not deny it! But I'm still on your side Bit! You have to understand that we always had an extremely small chance of successfully rescuing Leena –that plan would never have worked, and I know that we have a much better chance this way! Tristan has complete faith in me now that he thinks that I've willingly brought him your Ultimate X"

"His name is Liger" Bit corrected sullenly.

"Well, either way, Tristan is going to have to go out for parts and supplies sooner or later, and I know for a fact that he would never trust me or his robots with his shopping, so that leaves us a small but distinct window of opportunity in which to escape."

At the sound of escape, Bit looked up and nodded warily. "And what should I- we do in the meantime?"

Trina smirked ever so slightly "I'm going to have to ask the two of you to live here together until you can leave –it'll make for an easier escape." Bit gulped and tried not to look at Leena. What was the problem? He asked himself angrily, he'd lived with Leena for years now! Why should this be any different?

Leena shuffled her feet agitatedly, problems upon problems! Not only was she a prisoner to some evil zoid warrior who actually had the gall to have led her on for a month but now her rescuer was imprisoned too! They'd been double-crossed by someone who had already double-crossed them and was now double-crossing their jailor and on top of it all she had to worry about weather Tristan had been right about Bit or not.

It was true that Tristan had a bit of a habit when it came to lying, but what if he was telling the truth? What could he possibly gain from lying anyway? Well, he'd be messing with her head to be sure… that was probably it, she decided, he was just messing with her head for his own sick pleasure

She turned towards Bit who seemed to be unnaturally interested in the blue and white 'Harry the Handsome' curtains. Maybe she had nothing to worry about because in all honesty Bit could very well be batting for the other team.

"So… are you hungry?" Leena asked, desperately trying to drill a hole through the crushing silence.

"Uh, yeah… sure –what do we have?"

"Oh!" she said excitedly, "there's all sorts of stuff! But most of it's just microwavable meals…"

"Any cookies?" he asked slyly.

"Plenty," she said with a devilish gleam in her eyes, "but you'll have to go through me first…"

Bit laughed and ran towards the kitchen with Leena hot on his tail. He saw the cookie jar and lunged for it, but Leena grabbed his arm and pulled him back, and the next thing they knew, they were lying on the ground with cookies everywhere. Bit rolled over to avoid a falling lamp, but realized too late that he was now lying precariously on top of a very flustered-looking Leena… Both of their eyes widened in shock and embarrassment as their situation dawned on them. It took several moments for them to regain control of their muscles and pull away from each other. Bit began to avidly stare at the carpet while Leena busied herself in getting the crumbs out of her hair.

"So… salad?"

"yeah…"

……………………………….

Trina walked calmly down the dark halls with her chin held high. There was only one thing to do now; wait –and that was the hardest thing of all… she passed a troupe of robots which were silently gliding through the hall, their black armor shining eerily in the dim light. She suppressed a shudder and wondered why Tristan couldn't get a better hobby. She thought back to all of their childhood antics; he had been such a warm presence in her life, even when no one else would listen, he would always lend her an ear and a shoulder to lean upon. Even when they had run away, he had been more than kind to her, treating her as he always had –they were twins; they were inseparable –or so she had thought…

Ever since he had heard been defeated by a wild Ultimate X a year ago, he'd become obsessed. He refused all human contact for weeks after that –he hadn't so much as said 'good morning' to her for quite a while. Then he had met Leon and heard about Bit's zoid… That was the beginning of the end. He returned to acting the way he always had towards her and was unusually kind to Leon, but she'd known that it had only been that; an act. She hadn't seen an actual smile on his face for at least a year, and she sadly wondered if she ever would…

Suddenly, the hall ended and before her stood an impressive pair of mahogany doors. Trina sucked in a calming breath and smoothened out the creases on her forehead –Tristan would easily pick up any signs of betrayal if she wasn't careful. She knocked on the solid doors and watched quietly as they opened slowly a moment later. Two gleaming, red robots held the doors open as she passed inside, looking around for Tristan. She found him lounging quietly on a white couch in the corner, looking over several papers in his hands. Trina's mouth twitched in annoyance as Tristan continued to ignore her presence. Finally she addressed him, trying to hold back any tones of annoyance in her voice.

"Tristan, I refuse to be treated like one of your robots! I'm a real person! Or have you forgotten what that is?" Tristan spared a glance at his sister and warily put down his papers with a sigh of exasperation.

"Trina, I know that things have been off lately –and trust me, when I thought that you'd turned your back on me, I just didn't know what to do with myself!" Trina made a sound of disbelief. "It's true," he insisted, "I know that I don't show it as often as I should, but trust me, there is nothing that means more to me than you do –you're the one that keeps me sane!" Trina's eyes softened slightly, and she sank down on to the couch next to him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked finally.

"I thought you'd never ask –I've been running a little low on supplies and I was wondering if you would mind looking after things for a few hours…"

………………………………

Trina hurriedly put her plan into motion –a few broken circuits, a few disabled alarms –all in a day's work for the highly capable young woman. She looked up with a frown as sparks began to fly angrily from the mess of wires that she was manipulating and pulled her hands out just in time for the entire thing to catch on fire. She calmly picked up the small fire extinguisher and gave the entire thing a good coating of fire-retardant material before replacing the cover to hole in the wall. She vaguely wondered if she had remembered to cut the power supply to that particular room, and upon finding that she hadn't, she proceeded to do just that. Her hands ached from the various appliances and electrical wires that she had been working with meticulously over the past few days, and she'd barely gotten time to sit down –in short, she was exhausted. This didn't bother her though; for the first time, _she _was the one in charge; she was the one doing the planning and scheming; and she was the one who would make it work, regardless of the effect it had on her body. She still hoped that the circles under her eyes weren't too noticeable, and that Tristan was too wrapped up in his own agenda to notice hers…

Finally, the time had come. Today was the day that Tristan would leave, and she could finally put all of her hard work to use. She had re-routed many of the main cables in the base and cut-off all of the back-up and security cables in such a way so that when the time came, every security device (including the robots) would automatically shut down on her command. It certainly hadn't been easy, though; she'd spent nights upon nights pouring over endless seas of blueprints and instruction manuals. But now all of that hard work was going to pay off; she was going to save Bit and Leena…

She wiped her charred hands on her expensive leather pants and stood up slowly, stretching her aching muscles. They'd better be grateful for this, she thought bitterly as she gingerly touched a purplish welt on her forearm. Tristan had left at least twenty minutes ago, and she had had to work herself to the bone in order to finish on time, but now it was done. All that was left to do now was to disable the security systems completely and then break out Bit and Leena.

………………………………

Boredom. The room reeked of boredom. Leena sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Bit was sleeping as though he hadn't slept in days and Harry had mysteriously disappeared, so that left her with no one to torment. She swallowed the rest of the cookie in her hand and stood up decisively –now was as good a time as any to take a bath…

………………………………

Bit rubbed the sleep from his eyes; he felt like he'd been sleeping for a week! For some reason Leena hadn't complained about his taking the bed. Where had she slept anyways? He decided not to think about her and any thoughts that might lead to his imagining her in a skimpy night gown –too late. He gritted his teeth and tried to banish the image from his mind's eye; it was too early to be fantasizing! He sighed in defeat and stumbled out of bed –now was as good a time as any to take a cold shower…

………………………………

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

………………………………

Bit gingerly rubbed his bruised arms and tried to focus on his soggy cereal; but try as he might, the floating wheat flakes continued to coalesce into Leena-shaped clusters… This was just not his day… Maybe if he had simply come in one second earlier he wouldn't have had to see her lifting herself out of the tub… But then if he had come in a second earlier he wouldn't have gotten to see her lifting herself out of the tub –and maybe he wouldn't have gotten himself completely battered… He rubbed his shoulder one last time and forced himself to eat the slush before him.

………………………………

Leena's footsteps had long ceased to be angry stamping and had gradually become gentle padding along the forest floor. She realized now that she had probably over reacted and that it could have been her fault for not locking the door, but it had become an unfortunate habit of hers… She muttered angrily under her breath and kicked at an innocent pine cone. Things were already tense between them –why had he felt the need to make them even worse? At least she'd been able to pound him to within an inch of his life...

But try as she might, she hadn't been able to erase the thought of _him _in just a towel either. She gnashed her teeth angrily and tried to shut the image out of her mind –that would not do. It wasn't that Bit was ugly, or stupid, or ill-tempered, or egoistical, or a bad pilot, she thought sagely, but it just didn't seem right after all those years of being team mates… and besides –it was a long shot to even suggest that he would feel anything towards her, so it would be best for her to just let it go…and there was still Harry to consider –dear, egoistical, snobbish, uncomplicated Harry…

"Leena!" she turned towards the voice "Leena I've been looking everywhere for you! Didn't I tell you to stay in your apartment? Come on! It's time to go!" Leena saw Trina beckoning her through the thicket and walked towards her quickly with Bit meandering a few paces behind her…

………………………………

The door opened smoothly and the trio walked smoothly in, careful not to make a sound even though it silence did them little good, as there were no living creatures other than themselves in the entire base. Even Liger joined their silent haste as he soundlessly opened his cockpit and Bit climbed lithely in. Leena took the jeep and Trina found her zoid (a heavily armored Raynos). They each let out a breath of relief as the bay doors opened and the harsh desert light hit them. Bit and Trina followed Leena out of the base and into the sand, happily leaning back in their seats as they rode off into the dunes.

All of a sudden the ground under them began to shake and a gargantuan column of sand rose to meet the sky. Leena braced herself as she was thrown out of the jeep. She landed painfully on her left shoulder and gritted her teeth as she picked herself up and her eyesight became slightly blurry for a moment. When the smoke cleared, Bit had already jumped out of Liger and was running towards her as though his life depended on it. Trina, however, was hovering somewhere between heading towards the other two and readying herself for another attack. Leena forced the pain out of her mind after Bit had made sure that nothing was broken –whoever had done that would pay… Suddenly, out from the haze a black Command Wolf began to walk towards them.

Bit's eyes widened as he recognized the zoid –it had been in the crash cargo along with Liger only a week ago… The cockpit opened slowly and a man emerged from the clouds of billowing sand. "Leena," he began, "I'm glad to see that you're not hurt; I was afraid you weren't going to get back up for a moment…" Bit grit his teeth angrily and tightened his grasp on Leena.

"Go jump off a cliff Tristan!" she said as she struggled to free herself from Bit's grasp in order to beat Tristan to a bloody pulp. Bit would have let her take a few swings at the smirking pilot were it not for the fact that there was still an army of armed robots standing behind him and Leena was still a tad bit shaky on her legs…

"No, I don't think I will…" he answered absently while he pretended to inspect his fingernails, "But I must admit that I am a little disappointed that your pathetically half-baked bid for freedom couldn't even manage to last a whole ten minutes… tsk tsk tsk… it seems that I overestimated you Bit Cloud… and especially you Trina!" he said as he turned towards his sister's Raynos, "To think that I actually thought you might get away with it! What a waste of my time…"

"So you were toying with us the whole time!" Bit blurt out angrily, "you knew what we were planning!"

"Of course I knew! You weren't exactly subtle about it, were you? And I've been holed up in the Crash Cargo for months now… I needed some entertainment…"

"Shame on you Tristan!" Trina shouted as she stomped towards the little gathering, "I had thought that you were above toying with people's lives, but it turns out I was wrong!"

Tristan scowled at her and glanced towards the azure sky as though looking for something. "You chose to come with me Trina." He said as she approached. "You were the one who decided to come with me, I never asked you to come!"

"So I mean nothing to you? Your own flesh and blood?"

The pair glared icily at each other in the dessert heat.

"No… you don't."

Trina's mouth opened and closed wordlessly for a second, and then she finally seemed to regain her composure. "Then I suppose this is goodbye… you bastard!" and with that she spat at his feet angrily. Before anyone saw it coming, he slapped her across the face.

………………………………

Leon stared into his screen in disbelief; from Jamie's uplink to the Hover cargo from his Raynos, he could see all that was happening near the Crash Cargo, but no matter how many times he played it over in his head, he could not get over the sight of Tristan slapping Trina. How could he have so badly misjudged the man? He felt his blood begin to boil in rage and he vaguely realized that he was close to snapping the table that he was clutching in a vain effort to calm himself. He could simply not let this go. Tristan had kidnapped his sister, held Bit hostage and was now proceeding to physically harm Trina! This required a slight alteration in the plans…

………………………………

Silence poisoned the air for nearly a minute as Tristan stood staring at his hand with a horrified look, as though it had grown an extra digit and intermittently glancing up at his sister beseechingly in silent, shocked apology. Suddenly, from behind his own army, sprang another –a battalion of graceful zoids, rapidly approaching the little group of warriors. Tristan rushed back to his zoid upon the realization that they could not possibly be his allies (as he had none…) and therefore, he was in imminent danger in his current position.

The zoids stopped in their tracks and their cockpits opened.

"Leon!" cried Trina, staring at the warrior in shock. "What are all of you doing here?" she asked the group uncertainly.

"Harry-" Naomi said, jerking her finger towards another zoid, "tipped us off on your location –he installed a tracking device on the Crash Cargo before he was thrown out of there. The rest of us came as soon as possible, and had Jamie scout out the area before we did anything impulsive… but when Leon saw what Tristan did, he told us that it was too late for negotiations. So here we are now! We've brought your Gun Sniper Leena, so you can do all the damage you want."

"It looks like Tristan's getting ready to launch an attack." Brad yelled from his Shadowfox urgently.

"Let's show him what we've got!" yelled Harry.

Bit smirked maliciously; revenge would be sweet…


	17. Sunset

**Here is the final chapter of ****Reflections****. I'm extremely grateful to all of you that helped me along with this story and gave me the inspiration and encouragement I needed to finish. This has been a great ride, and I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did. Enjoy! **

**­­­­­­­­­…………………………………….**

The battle had begun, at least that much was obvious as Leena broke the dazed silence with a few well-aimed rockets. Tristan's robot army was far from useless as they took aim at the troupe and some even began to climb into empty zoids and pilot them across the battlefield. Bit and Liger began to wreak havoc on the robots, as they slashed them to screws and occasionally just crushed them underfoot. Sand flew and bombs detonated and a spectacular show took place. Leon rushed at Tristan at every chance he got, angrily pouring all of his rage and frustration out onto the center of his hatred. Shards of metal and bullets tore through the sky, filling the air with as much metal as sand. Trina lurked around the battle, watching for robots to tear up, but keeping her distance from Tristan. Harry hovered around Leena, watching her back and covering her brash attacks from the sidelines. Brad and Naomi bounded around the field, giving help wherever it was needed. Jamie soared through the clouds, watching the progression of the battle from overhead and shouting suggestions into the communicator and occasionally bringing down a few robots. Hours passed without their knowledge, and they continued to battle relentlessly without missing a beat.

The sky was beginning to darken, and their zoids began to cast eerie shadows on the charred frames of the fallen robots. The small battalion of remaining robots was courageously attempting to subdue a tired but fiery Leena who was fending them off well enough without Harry's help. Not that she had much of a choice –Harry had been taken down by one of Tristan's zoids and Jamie had swooped down to take him back to the Hover cargo. Leon had unwisely decided to take on Tristan one-on-one and though he'd put up a brilliant fight, he'd eventually succumbed to Tristan's prowess; but to his credit, he'd taken a great deal of Tristan's armor with him and had managed to stay conscious. Bit had been mobbed by Tristan's robot-piloted zoids and while trying to help him Leena had accidentally hit Jamie with one of her rockets and due to the distraction, two of the zoids had managed to take Liger down. Naomi had been blindsided by a huge rocket, and as Brad raced towards her –he forgot to take the robots into account and was eventually taken down.

Leena fought the handful of robots doggedly while Trina haltingly approached Tristan. The two circled each other for what seemed like an eternity; each silently willing the other to back down before things got ugly. Tristan fired first –almost catching her zoid's shoulder. Trina jumped out of the way in the nick of time and sprinted towards Tristan, firing bullets as she went. Tristan dodged the bullets and jumped high above her, seeming to almost disappear for a moment –but then came crashing down on her a split-second later. Trina had barely any time to react, but react she did. She put all of her efforts into throwing herself to the side and shooting a rocket at him. Tristan came down with an enormous shuddering crash and save for Leena's disembowelment of the final Zoid, all was still.

Nearly a minute passed where no one uttered a syllable and the air vibrated with tension, finally Trina's cockpit opened up and she ran towards Tristan's fallen zoid. The hover cargo which had finally arrived, opened and several pilots tumbled out onto the warm sand, struggling to race towards the two remaining warriors. Bit and Harry ran towards Leena while Leon charged in Trina's direction.

……………………………………….

When Trina finally reached her brother, she was dismayed to find his leg caught between several parts of machinery –he had long forsaken safety for firepower. She gritted her teeth and tried to pry the twisted metal from his leg, but to no avail. She finally sat back and cradled her brother's head in her arms with a baleful moan. The thumping sound of boots shuffling through sand caught her attention and she caught sight of a tall figure emerging from the growing darkness. She squinted warily and thought that whoever it was, they would be more than happy to leave Tristan to the vultures.

"Trina?" Her head snapped up at the sound of her name being uttered by none other than Leon. She gasped slightly at his being there, but said nothing. He stared down at her for a moment and then looked towards Tristan, his eyes trailing down his leg to his entangled shin. Trina tightened her grip on Tristan as Leon stooped down to look at his leg.

"What do you want here Leon?" she said with frustration, exhaustion and anger seeping off of her tongue.

Leon sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair, wincing as he touched a sore spot. "I'm not here to fight you Trina, or even to hurt him," he said looking down at the unconscious warrior, "I'm here to apologize –sincerely apologize.

"You were right all along Trina, I should have believed you. I know better now that loyalty to family and loved-ones can sometimes cause us to become blind to the truth and blind to our true feelings. I realize now that you never would have put Leena's life in danger and you were just doing what you did in order to protect me –I was an idiot. Please forgive me." And with that he walked towards the zoid and pulled the metal from Tristan's trapped leg and extricated him from the wreckage.

Trina opened her mouth to speak but then realized that no words were needed and launched herself onto the zoid pilot so suddenly that he barely had time to register the action before her lips touched his.

……………………………………..

When he had exited the Hover Cargo, Bit had forgotten to take his strained Achilles Tendon into account. So when he and Harry made a mad dash towards Leena's gun sniper, it hadn't been long before his ankle had gotten the better of him and Harry's footsteps were fading into the black night. He sullenly gritted his teeth and made his slow and steady way towards Leena –though it would take him a while, he would get there.

……………………………………

Harry stooped over to catch his breath as he found himself but a few feet away from Leena. She was standing next to her zoid, staring off into the fading sunset. He wished, not for the first time, that he could know exactly what was going on in that pretty little head –if only she would open up to him! He trudged towards her as quietly as he could, so as to not disturb her moment on peace.

Leena shifter her weight as she heard someone approach, suddenly realizing how exhausted she really was, she turned her head to the side to see who it was.

"Bit?" she questioned the dark figure, "Is that you?" The person froze at the sound of her voice, and she got the feeling that she had said something wrong. "Harry?" she tried again uncertainly.

A humorless chuckle exuded from the silhouette. "I'm always going to be second to him, aren't I?" A tense silence followed his statement as Leena searched desperately for words with which to reassure him.

"No- Harry, I-"

"No need." He said, cutting her off, "You don't have to make excuses. A few months ago I would have been glad to hear them, but after spending all of this time with you, you've made me realize what true love really is." He sighed and fixed his gaze upon her violet eyes, "True love is the truth and the ability to handle the truth –no matter how harsh it may be.

"I love you Leena, and you've made me strong enough to handle the truth. So I think it's time you handled your own truth Leena." He smirked slightly and began to walk away, "He loves you as much as I do…"

Leena could do nothing but stand, cemented in her spot, wondering how tired one had to be in order to start hallucinating. She felt her knees buckle under her and her thoughts begin to churn about her head at an alarming rate. The stars were beginning to go blurry and bounce around in her vision when she heard a concerned voice calling out to her from the blackness.

"Leena! Are you okay?" Leena swallowed dryly and rasped out for water, when had her throat become so dry? The soothing liquid slipped down her throat and she quickly wiped her lips with her sleeve.

"Thanks" she managed quietly, trying not to think of the warmth of Bit's hand supporting her back. She got up quickly, only to find herself falling onto her knees.

"I think you're more tired than you think –and you might a little dehydrated" Bit noted as Leena emptied the third water bottle that he handed her.

"I guess I am a little tired… and you don't know how sorry I am about all of this-"

"Oh, come off it! It was a total accident, it could have happened to anyone…"

"I'm not just talking about what happened with Jamie"

"Neither am I" He retorted seriously. Leena bowed her head and bit back a sob- now was not the time to cry.

"But-" she said trying to steady her voice, "For some reason these things always happen to me, and I'm starting to think that it's not coincidence…"

"Hey," Bit said suddenly, grabbing her hands, "don't talk like that! This isn't the real you! The real Leena is strong and stubborn and doesn't care what happens to her because she's always ready to fight back. The real Leena never gives up and _never _gives in. The real Leena is always ready with a witty retort or at least a knuckle sandwich. The real Leena is brave and beautiful and carefree! That's the Leena I want to see!" he said excitedly before becoming quiet and somber once more, "That's the Leena I love…"

Leena gasped and looked up at Bit with wide eyes like a deer in the headlights. "Bit…" He looked away in embarrassment and pulled his hands from hers, wringing them in nervous anticipation.

"I –I didn't mean for it to come out like that… I"

Leena grabbed his hands back into hers and trained her violet ones eyes onto his blue orbs. "Ever since I can remember –ever since we first met; I've been jealous of you. I envied your skill and style and power, I even envied your appetite! I saw you as an outsider, someone who had barged in and taken Leon's place –but as I got to know you, I realized that despite all of that, you never had too much of an ego or an attitude. I wondered ceaselessly why that was, until I realized that it was because you were a good person –a decent human being. You always put our needs before your own, and though you're not perfect, I can tell you that you're as close to it as anyone would want to get, and just hearing all of that from your mouth makes me feel happier than I've ever felt after winning a big battle! I don't know how I could possibly have been dense enough to not notice," she said with shining eyes, "–but I love you Bit Cloud, and I always will!"

The pair beamed in joy and astonishment at their new discovery and all thoughts of pain and weariness were discarded like old clothes as they kissed and embraced in the sand as though the sun would never rise again. Both knew perfectly well that it would indeed rise again; and when it did, they would face it together.

…………………………………

**Well, there you go! I hope you liked it! And if you didn't… too bad, because I'm not changing it now… Tell me your thoughts –I'd love to hear them! I'm so glad that I've finished this –there's nothing more displeasing than a half-finished story, in my opinion… So if you haven't reviewed in all of these many chapters for one reason or another, it would be great if you could just let it all out now! Bit & Leena forever:)**


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